UGC Draft Rules| Centre’s larger agenda of controlling institutions, says Telangana Council of Higher Education Chairperson V. Balakista Reddy 

Draft UGC Regulations 2025 raise concerns among educators and policymakers, hinting at autonomy threats and academic standards dilution.

The Draft UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment & Promotion of Teachers and Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2025, have become a cause of concern mong educators, regulatory bodies and policymakers.

For Chairperson of Telangana Council of Higher Education V. Balakista Reddy the Regulations hint at a clear danger to the autonomy of institutions in the long-term.

Speaking to The Hindu , he says the Regulations “clearly unravel a larger agenda of controlling the institutions by the Centre through the UGC and seek to dilute the very essence of academic standards and sanctity.”

According to Mr. Reddy, the shifting goalposts of UGC regarding minimum qualifications for appointment as a faculty member is a major challenge. The other is of increasing the weightage for academic and research standards in relation to publications.

It appears that UGC is seeking to drop its own ‘UGC-CARE List’ of journals and the journals indexed in Scopus and Web of Science platforms, while the emphasis is on peer-reviewed journals.

“This is happening even as the academic community has been trying to tackle an enormous number of predatory journals. It is a strange case of a defendant, judge, and jury all rolled into one to decide the merits of the case. Terms such as ‘notable contribution’ have been cited as criterion for approval and promotion of academic staff,” he says.

The major issue of contest is ‘UGC as a tool of intervention from New Delhi’ not only forays into unchartered territory but also raises legitimate concerns on the role of Governor in appointment of Vice Chancellor, since the nominee of the Governor, as per the Regulations, will constitute the Search Committee.