MADURAI

A seminar organised by the Revolutionary Students and Youth Front (RSYF) here on Tuesday condemned the Central government for scrapping the University Grants Commission (UGC).

In his address, R. Murali, secretary, Save MKU Coalition, said that once Parliament repealed UGC Act, 1951, and replaced it with Higher Education Commission of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act) Act 2018, higher educational institutions would lose their autonomy.

“Here, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has more control over distribution of funds. The Commission heads will be dispensable and can be easily replaced to fit the Centre’s agenda. This would mean that nobody will raise a voice of dissent,” he said.

He added that financial control would mean that institutions with a high marginalised population would be discriminated against. Since education was now commercial, proper vision would be lacking. He also said that many humanities courses would bear the brunt of this educational climate change.

Mr. Murali along with other academicians like P. Vijaykumar, vice-president, Save MKU Coalition; V. Bhavan, professor of Madurai Kamaraj University, and T. Ganesan, State convenor, RSYF, said that scrapping the UGC would be anti-democratic. Educationists would be silenced and made to pander to the tunes of the Centre, if the UGC ACt was scrapped.

The speakers also said that the new performance-based incentive approach would cut off access and grants to educational institutions with students from low economic background. This would also reiterate the traditional mindset of achieving scores rather than understanding the subjects.