HED clears air over engagement of academic arrangements in colleges

Srinagar, Feb 14: The Higher Education Department (HED) has cleared the air over the engagement of the academic arrangements in the colleges on an annual basis.

The move comes amid persistent protests by the aspirants of the academic arrangements who accused the HED of playing with their careers.

Talking to Greater Kashmir, Nodal Principal Kashmir Division Colleges Prof Sheikh Aijaz Bashir said the aspirants misinterpreted the notification issued in this regard by the Directorate of the Colleges J&K.

He said that in addition to the permanent faculty, every year HED engages candidates on an academic arrangement basis to overcome the need that is generated as per the fresh student enrolment and available vacant posts in different degree colleges.

Notably, the J&K government implemented the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 from academic session 2022 and implemented a uniform academic calendar which enabled the department to remove the time lag and ensure that students of J&K were in sync with the national academic calendar.

“Accordingly academic session in colleges of Kashmir division starts from August 1 instead of March of every year. In Jammu division academic session was already starting from mid-July of a calendar year and the need-based faculty on academic arrangement was engaged during the same period,” the Nodal Principal said.

He said that in Kashmir division candidates on need-based academic arrangements were engaged in March or April of a calendar year as per requirement of Kashmir division colleges.

“But with the implementation of a common academic calendar, there was a requirement of engaging need-based academic arrangement from July and August of a calendar year. Accordingly from session 2024-25 the need-based faculty on academic arrangement will be engaged from July 2024 and the notification for the same will be issued very soon,” he said.

Earlier, the Director of Colleges J&K issued a circular that the academic arrangement faculty would be engaged well before the academic session 2024 which would start from August 1, 2024, and for the same advertisement notification would be issued shortly.

“Meanwhile, all affiliated and constituent colleges of the University of Kashmir and the Cluster University Srinagar will reopen on February 15 and different semester examinations will commence thereafter with class work for semester 5th and 6th batch 2021,” the circular reads.

It stated that the colleges having requirement of temporary faculty for teaching the semester students will engage the services of academic arrangement faculty who were disengaged from December 26 of 2023 “as guest faculty strictly as per the guidelines in vogue”.

“The guest faculty shall be engaged by respective heads of the institutions strictly as per requirement for teaching of semester 6th students and subsequent semester 2nd batch of 2023 and semester 4th batch of 2022 thereafter with prior approval of the directorate,” the circular reads.

It states that the arrangement would remain only till the academic arrangement faculty for session 2024 is deployed in the colleges.

“The guest faculty engaged shall have no claim for engagement on an academic arrangement basis for session 2024 which shall be done strictly as per the engagement notification to be issued shortly,” it reads.

The circular evoked massive criticism from the academic arrangement aspirants who have been working in the colleges and universities for years together.

However, the nodal principal of Kashmir division colleges stated that there was a need for shifting the engagement period of academic arrangements from March, April to July and August.

“To fulfil the requirement of availability of teachers during the transition, the circular has been issued wherein the principals of colleges have been asked to engage the guest faculty from among the candidates who were already working on academic arrangements until December 26 in their respective colleges,” Prof Sheikh Aijaz Basher told Greater Kashmir.

He said that the guest faculty could be engaged as per the engagement guidelines in vogue, only for the transitional period and the nomenclature of academic arrangement was not replaced by guest faculty in the degree colleges across J&K UT.

“From academic session 2024-25, need-based academic arrangement candidates will continue to be engaged for one academic session from July of every year as per the academic arrangement guidelines of HED,” Prof Basher said.

He said that the academic arrangement engagement for session 2024-25 would be done through a merit-based and transparent selection process as per the requirement of the colleges for which the notification would be issued shortly.