1/3^rd NU teachers have distance edu degrees

Nagpur: At a time when questions are being raised on educational qualification of Nagpur University’s newly-appointed finance and accounts officer (FAO) Raju Hiwase, particularly his degree through distance education mode, it’s learnt that about one-third of the teachers working in the university possess such degrees. The university roughly has over 5,000 teachers across its 39 departments, three conducted colleges, besides over 6,000 affiliated colleges. One such complaint was lodged by Sunil Mishra, whose petition in Nagpur bench of Bombay high court had led to ban on NU’s 250 colleges operating without a single teacher and infrastructure in 2013.
Mishra has now filed a complaint against head of NU’s Mass Communication department Dharmesh Dhawankar with the joint director of higher education Anjali Rahatgaonkar. Mishra stated that the HOD obtained his Masters of Mass Communication (MMC) degree from Guru Jambheshwar University in Hisar, Haryana, in 1999, through distance education mode. He, therefore, requested the joint director to recommend vice chancellor SP Kane to cancel Dhawankar’s ‘approved teacher’ status bestowed by the university and also demanded to stop his salary immediately.
Dhawankar ridiculed Mishra’s allegations stating that degrees offered by Hisar-based university are well recognized by the UGC and other apex bodies. “After completing MMC, I appeared for NET conducted by the UGC and cleared it. At that time, UGC must have thoroughly verified my degrees. Had my MMC degree was not recognized, they would have never allowed me to appear for NET. Mishra has made baseless allegations just out of sheer enmity,” he clarified.
Dhawankar added that degrees offered by open universities like Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) were recognized by Distance Education Council (DEC) for further education and jobs in the country. “Many of the veterans from NU have their PG degrees from open university, does it mean that they were incapable. The government would have never allowed open universities to function, if the degrees these institutions offer are not recognized,” he pointed out.
NU officials, however, pointed out that not only PG, but even PhDs have been obtained by teachers from other universities, many of which were never heard of. TOI had exposed one such racket of Meghalaya-based Chandra Mohan Jha (CMJ) University on June 5, 2013, that had allegedly sold thousands of PhDs on payment of Rs2 to Rs5 lakh. Many teachers had obtained promotions based on these “fake” degrees in NU and neighbouring Gondwana University. After a series of TOI reports, Meghalaya government had closed the university and cancelled all degrees offered by it. Subsequently, NU had also acted against some of its teachers possessing PhD from the CMJ.
Jt director cried at MC meet, created scenes: VC
Meanwhile, VC launched a scathing attack on Rahatgaonkar stating that she unnecessarily created scenes during the Management Council meeting and cried a couple of times, as her demands were rejected. Kane said he had shown courtesy, else he has powers under Section 14 of Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994, to suspend members who obstruct proceedings and didn’t follow the chairman’s orders. “She overstepped her jurisdiction, despite the fact that she had no right to question selection made by NU panels. How can she say that FAO Raju Hiwase’s degree is not recognized? The norms keep changing every year and his degree must be very old,” Kane told TOI.