According to the news agency PTI, a special position will be created for the industry experts such as professor of practice and associate professor of practice. Under the proposal, experts who are willing to teach can be hired as full-time or part-time faculty members depending on what the university needs, the official said.

The official said that the UGC will form a committee to look into how this can be done and it will submit its report. Under the proposal, a new portal will be set up which will act as a single point for those willing to apply to a university.

However, the UGC’s decision has received backlash from a section of teachers. As per the news agency, Delhi University Professor Abha Dev Habib said the government is “freeing itself of the pressure of giving jobs to qualified teachers on a permanent basis”.

“Teachers who have been teaching for past several years are not “experts” and cannot be made permanent or even be shortlisted for permanent interviews (as is the case in many Delhi University departments). But people labelled “experts” by BJP-RSS can be parachuted into any system,” she said in a Facebook post.

Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Aishe Ghosh tweeted, “A step towards dismantling higher education.”

According to the UGC minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers and other academics, a Ph.D is mandatory to get into a university as a professor or an associate professor.