TNAU associate professors protest denial of promotions under career advancement scheme

COIMBATORE: More than 100 associate professors at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) staged a sit-in protest in front of the vice-chancellor’s office on Thursday, objecting to the denial of promotions for them under the career advancement scheme (CAS).A protesting associate professor stated that TNAU directed in October 2022 that every associate professor should publish one paper per year in a National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)-listed journal as a criterion for faculty promotion. “This requirement does not exist in the UGC or ICAR guidelines,” he said.He said although this criterion had been effective from 2022, it had not been adhered to till last year, resulting in more than 140 faculty members being promoted as professors.

“But the university is insisting on this criterion now,” he said.

The protesting associate professors alleged that despite presenting more than five research papers and achieving an eligible score, many of them were denied promotion under the CAS this year.They said TNAU recently conducted interviews for nearly 330 associate professors in all departments. The results published on Wednesday showed that only 25 of them were promoted based on their annual publications. The remaining were denied promotion despite having the required CAS scores, they said.