Bharathidasan University guest lecturers demand time-scale salary, regularisation

CHENNAI: Guest lecturers from Bharathidasan University approached the Minister for Higher Education, P Viswananthan, here on Wednesday and appealed to ensure time scale of pay for at least 11 months against the current 9.5 months, job security and priority in appointments.

The Minister, who organised a training session for the lecturers from the university, was approached by the members of the Guest Lecturers Union. They submitted a petition stating that as many as 130 guest lecturers are working in the university in various disciplines and they get only a consolidated payment of Rs 20,000 despite engaging in various activities, including valuation of papers, conducting lab assessments and conduct of examinations, besides teaching.

Pointing out that they get paid for 9.5 months and left with no income for the next 2.5 months, they appealed to revise the payment scheme to at least 11 months.  They also demanded regularisation for the guest lecturers working for over 10 years, and priority be given to them during the regular appointments.

They also demanded withdrawal of the Tamil Nadu’s Private Universities (Amendment ) Bill 2026, which would affect admissions in government and government aided colleges, impacting students from marginalised backgrounds.

Similarly, the Tamil Nadu Anna University Teachers’ Association also submitted a petition urging timely promotion of the teachers working in the Anna University Constituent Colleges for more than 17 years. They also appealed to fill vacancies of teaching faculty as per student-teacher ratio norms.