Jaffna University – Giving the UGC its Due

by John Ratnathurai

(February 24, Jaffna, Sri Lanka Guardian) In two articles ( Article 1, Article 2)  on February 7 and 11 2011, in collaboration with Sri Lanka Guardian, I brought out the corrupt goings-on at University of Jaffna.

An incident I drew attention to involved an LTTE police high-up who had risen in Jaffna’s Faculty of Agriculture and was made Professor very recently though he did not have the required points. A UGC Vice Chairman who came as one of the UGC’s two nominees on the Selection Committee objected when the Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. N. Shanmugalingam, raised the marks given by the external experts. But the Vice Chairman gave up when Shanmugalingam insisted on having his way. The story leaked out as other members of the Selection Committee, not having the guts to object directly at the Selection Committee to Shanmugalingam, grumbled everywhere about his partiality.

Jaffna University’s chaotic situation continues. The Acting Vice Chancellor, as pointed out in a letter by Head of Mathematics and discussed at the Senate on 24 February 2011 in an atmosphere of heat has imposed new conditions for the professorial application process based, as the Acting VC says, on decisions of the CVCD (Committee of Vice Chancellors and Directors), a body not recognized by any statute. If true, the CVCD seems to be usurping the powers of the UGC. This can only lead to further chaos.

Subsequent to the revelations in Lanka Guardian, the University Grants Commission “meeting on 2nd December 2010” has issued Establishment Circular Letter No. 02/2011 dated “February 14, 2011” requiring that “the Selection Committee should not change or alter marks given by the external reviewers.” The new rule applies to all applications “on or after 1 Dec. 2005 … under Circular No. 869 of 30.11.2009.”

Giving the Devil its due, I must say “Congratulations, UGC! There is still hope for you despite your being asleep on the job most of the time as this circular indicates.”

I say this because there are serious questions. How could someone have applied in 2005 under Circular 869 dated 2009? UGC – please explain how. Why a month and a half to get this circular out? Was the delay because the UGC approved a circular that was yet to be drafted? If the decision was truly taken on 2 December 2010, why did the Vice Chairman who must have known of the decision at the time of the selection committee meeting, allow marks to be altered at that meeting which was held after this decision? Or was the decision backdated to 1 December 2010 to ensure that this Jaffna selection of the police official was clearly illegal? Can the new Circular Letter 02/2011 dated 14 February 2011 be retroactively applied to 1.12.2005 (or even 1.12.2010 if that was careless error by the Commission)? This backdating now raises questions about the “several” promotions where “candidates did not receive a fair selection” throughout the system as hinted in the new Circular Letter 02/2011. Will the police officer’s promotion now be nullified? Or will Jaffna’s Council look the other way knowing that no one is a directly affected party in a promotion like this and therefore no one can legally challenge the promotion?

Only the UGC has the regulatory authority to set things right. Will it use that authority or is that too much to hope? The UGC’s job does not finish with promulgating circulars. It must make sure that they are followed. So long as the UGC never gets this, the corruption will continue despite Circular Letter No. 02/2011 and the CVCD will soon be issuing circulars.