The routine processes of organisations sometimes shed such startling light on their true character. The draft UGC notification on revision of pay scales and qualification of appointments of teachers shows just how we have taken such a fundamentally wrong turn in higher education. At first look the objectives of this exercise seem innocuous enough, and even desirable. There needs to be greater self-consciousness about these qualifications. There needs to be greater rationalisation of the work load of faculty to ensure that all faculty, in their own ways are contributing to institutions. But the principles on which the performance appraisal system is being designed is more a testament to the perversity of our regulators than a recipe for improvement.

First, there is an issue of principle. No one should doubt that there needs to be a debate and some guidelines over just how we judge faculty. But it is absolutely astonishing that we presume that all universities, whatever their character and location, should be governed by the same guidelines. Part of what makes a university a university is the authority its faculty have to give the university a distinct identity. But universities are now increasingly being treated as appendages in a vast centralised and bureaucratic system. It is the height of presumption to think that one centralised agency can design rules appropriate for hundreds of universities. Our regulators are so excessively and over-weeningly concerned about rooting out weeds that they end up killing the flowers as well, leaving a vast barren landscape.

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