Guest faculty protests after Pbi varsity asks them to appear for interview

Tribune News Service

Patiala, July 30
Demanding extension of their services, the guest faculty members from neighbourhood campuses and constituent colleges of Punjabi University, Patiala, staged a protest march on the campus and burnt the copies of their degrees.
Since July 16, guest faculty is staging protest outside dean’s office to demand approval for the 2024-25 session. On July 19, the faculty members had also gheraoed the house of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in Sangrur.
A protesting faculty member claimed that the university authorities have issued a letter requiring interviews for the guest faculty members, who have been working at various campuses and colleges for a long time.
The leaders of the teachers’ union mentioned that the syndicate had already given these professors 12 months of approval. However, the university authorities ignored this decision and issued a notice for re-interviews for the guest faculty members.
The union president, Gursewak Singh, said due to such a notice issued for assistant professors of the campuses, there was fear in the minds of assistant professors working in 14 constituent colleges that they may also be asked to appear in the interview for the new 2024-25 academic session.
He said that if the university arranges interviews for guest faculty assistant professors, some of them may lose their jobs despite teaching on the neighbourhood campuses and constituent colleges since 2018. Since then, the university has been granting approval to the assistant professors to teach the students without any interview during every academic session, he added.