MUFA demands promotion orders for MKU lecturers

Madurai Kamaraj University Faculty Association has appealed to the State government to immediately process the promotion for the eligible lecturers in the university.
C. Muniyandi, general secretary, MUFA, said that about 100 lecturers, 85 assistant professors and 15 associate professors, were yet to receive their promotion orders despite their eligibility and participation in the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) process held in February and March 2024.
The non-receipt of promotions by a significant number of faculty members despite their eligibility and participation in the due process was against their employment, he added.
When the promotions were issued on time on the date of the order, the associate professors would have been promoted to professors by this time and they could have been eligible to receive several funds for their respective departments, he noted.
'In addition to the monetary perks of promotions, on the academic part, only professors are granted specific grants and projects from renowned institutions like the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),' he stated.
Only when the departments received grants for projects would the university regain the lost recognition, Mr. Muniyandi said.
'Once we represented the issue to the Department of Higher Education, we were informed that due to audit objections pending in the university, the promotions could not be issued to the eligible lecturers,' he added.
Questioning the rationale behind stopping promotions for the audit objections, Mr. Muniyandi noted that audit objections were matters of revenue and expenditure of the institution.
He asked whether admissions of students be stopped in the current academic year owing to the audit objections.
Also, when the promotions were not given on time, the ceiling for the lecturers for the intake of research scholars would be affected, he noted.
When a professor could guide eight research scholars, an associate professor could guide only six scholars at a time. When the delay in promotions stops the staff from taking in more scholars, would the scholars' life be not wasted who would be waiting for a guide for their research, he asked.
He stated that the promotion process was not merely a matter of administrative procedure but a crucial step towards ensuring equity, justice and inclusivity in academia.

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