UGC draft regulations 2025 aimed at sidelining states from higher education: Kerala CM

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said that the draft UGC regulations of 2025 not only diminish the role of state governments in higher education, but in reality sideline them. The CM said that under the draft regulations, the states have no role in appointment of vice chancellors (VCs) and assistant professors in state-established universities and termed them as "undemocratic and excessive".

He was speaking after inaugurating a National Convention here on the draft University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations of 2025 which was attended by ministers from the neighbouring states of Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

He said that powers for appointing VCs have been given to Chancellors, who are the Governors appointed by the Centre, and therefore there was scope for politically motivated selections which would be harmful for the higher education sector in the country. He claimed that "gubernatorial excesses" were experienced by many opposition-ruled states, including Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Kerala, in the country. Vijayan said that Governors, as Chancellors, have made political interferences in universities in the states and the same is expected to increase under the draft regulations.

The CM also highlighted his government's experience with former Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and how he had declined assent to various bills related to the administration of universities in the state, forcing the state government to approach the Supreme Court. Vijayan said that the draft regulations also carried "new and arbitrary criteria for promotions of academic staff. He said that the regulations were "not an isolated incident in terms of the Union government infringing upon the states' rights".

The CM also raised the issue of the Centre allegedly eating into the states' financial resources as "share of Union allocation for their own schemes was coming down year-after-year, with the state governments having to chip in more-and-more".

He also alleged that the Union government will go to any extent to usurp the rights of the states.

Similar views were expressed by Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu, who presided over the event, and Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka. Bindu said the draft regulations were not only an incursion into the constitutional provisions, but would lead to "diluting" academic quality in the state universities. She said that the regulations carried "potential dangers" to the freedom and autonomy of the states in higher education.

"It is an attempt to undermine democratic values in the field of higher education and relegate it into the clutches of those spreading regressive ideas," she contended and urged the Centre and the UGC to withdraw the draft regulations. Vikramarka said in his speech that the draft regulations "leave the states as mere spectators in their own universities".

"It is akin to saying you pay the bill, but you cannot order the food," he said.

The Telangana Deputy CM said that states need to "assert" their demands, instead of just holding discussions. The Kerala government has expressed opposition to the draft regulations right from the start.

Vijayan had earlier termed it as a part of the "Sangh Parivar agenda to consolidate power and subvert state autonomy".

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 were released in the first week of January.

According to the Union Education Ministry, the draft guidelines aim to provide universities with greater flexibility in appointing and promoting teachers and academic staff.