The University of Calicut has decided to act against principals of affiliated self-financing colleges who lack University Grants Commission (UGC)-mandated qualifications.

This comes close on the heels of the university’s move to enforce either clearance of the UGC-National Eligibility Test or a PhD mandatory for the appointment of assistant professors in these colleges.

In a letter to managers and principals of affiliated colleges on June 18, Registrar C.D. Sebastian said that upon recent verification of data in the Centralised College Portal, it had come to the notice of the university that a large number of principals currently serving in self-financing colleges lacked the mandatory qualifications prescribed by the UGC. It was also observed that certain government and aided colleges either lacked these qualifications or had failed to update their qualifications on the portal.

“Despite explicit and repeated general instructions issued by this university on multiple occasions, it is observed with grave concern that these directives are not being honoured by the managements of several self-financing colleges,” the Registrar said. He added that all self-financing college managements should ensure that appointments to the post of Principal were made in absolute compliance with UGC Regulations and university statutes. The management of colleges with unqualified principals “must take immediate steps to rectify the deficiency”. All affiliated colleges must update the qualification details of their principals to the college development council section of the university within 15 days.

The Registrar said that a “failure to comply with these instructions or continued deployment of unqualified principals” would be viewed as a “deliberate violation of university norms, and the university will be constrained to initiate stringent disciplinary actions, without further notice”.

However, a section of principals have opposed the move claiming that some of them have over 20 years’ experience. Any en masse action would affect the functioning of the colleges, they added.