Experts from CUK resigned due to Row over research areas in Ph.D.

Experts from CUK resigned due to Row over research areas in Ph.D.

The registrar of the University of Kerala issued a circular which stated that research topics for Ph.D. should be aligned with the national priorities and the research in the irrelevant areas must be discouraged. After the issue of the circular, academic expert and professor Meena T Pillai has resigned from the Board of Studies in English and Comparative Literature of the university. “I think this is a fundamental violation of the spirit of research and academic freedom. The decision from the part of the University to implement the order that limits prospective research to select areas which are in accordance with ‘national prioritiesʼ is highly detrimental to the purpose of higher education in public universities, especially at a time when the spirit of education is increasingly being subsumed to the interests of neo-liberalization, privatization and corporatization,” she said in the resignation letter. She further said that research is an act of rigorous scholarly investment and forcing the scholars to chose only from few topics will be the death of free and committed research in public universities. “The use of the term ‘national prioritiesʼ itself is problematic within academics as it curbs the autonomy of the researcher and compromises the ethics that should form the base of any academic endeavour,” said the strongly worded letter, adding, “Academics should inculcate spaces that are democratic and inclusive, as opposed to instructing researchers to stoop before the eccentricities of regressive regimes.” The expert resigned after the circular because if implemented it will only serve narrow political interests and would kill the freedom of research in the university.

source https://www.brainbuxa.com/education-news/experts-from-cuk-resigned-due-to-row-over-research-areas-in-phd-9239