FIP for Librarians?

Dear Professionals, It is high time to do strong and coordinated movements by the individual professionals and associations against the step motherly treatment imposed by some universities regarding the restriction of Part-time PhD only to "teachers". The definition of a teacher in international parlance includes librarians also. But, many universities in India and “teachers” or administrators governing them are either unaware or afraid of international standard or quality in teaching, learning and research. As per the UGC Regulations, PhD is a Statutory Qualifications for Career Advancement Promotion for library professionals also as in the case of “teachers”. Though, FIP is available for librarians also, many librarians find it practically difficult to get the application for FIP is smoothly forwarded or sanctioned. Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) is offering full-time deputation for PhD for teachers in other universities. Recently it has decided to sanction deputation with research allowance for part-time PhD in KAU itself for its teachers. But, as there is no course in Library and Information Science or Documentation in KAU, library professionals in KAU also struggling to get slot for PhD research. All other universities in Kerala having Library Science Dept. have recently blocked librarians to pursue for part-time research. So, in order to mould able librarians and introduce quality and international standards in higher education and research, all librarians, library science teachers and associations should try their level best to rectify this gross injustice and step motherly treatment faced by the librarians. DR. A.T. FRANCIS, MCom, MLISc, NET, PhD HEAD, LIBRARY College of Horticulture Kerala Agricultural University Thrissur - 680 656, India, 91-9496839409 (m) francisaloor@ yahoo.com francisaloor@ gmail.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------