Jaipur, Jan 16 (PTI) Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot has criticised the draft rules proposed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for the appointment of academic staff, saying that such rules could ruin the quality of higher education.

"It seems that the draft rules made by the UGC for the appointment of vice-chancellors and academic staff in universities have been made to start the process of establishing RSS ideologues in universities," Gehlot alleged in a post on X.

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The Congress leader said that according to the draft, there will now be no compulsion for a vice-chancellor to to be an academician and the central government would have the authority to appoint vice-chancellors in state universities.

Gehlot said with these rules, the number of contractual professors in universities could also be reduced to 10%, meaning it will be easy to appoint "favourite individuals" as professors.

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The former CM warned that such rules could undermine the quality of higher education and lead to the danger of unqualified people taking charge of the universities.

He further said that this is a threat to the federal system of the country as it will reduce the autonomy and rights of the states.

He added that all state governments and the academician community must oppose such rules which could undermine the quality of higher education and jeopardise the country's future.

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