kolhapur the shivaji university kolhapur suk has asked teachers and students to appeal to the university grants commission ugc to rollback its guideline which allows only regular postgraduate pg department faculty as guides d r more director board of colleges and university development bcud suk told toi that the varsity is doing its bit to request the ugc regarding this matter but other stakeholders also need to participate the ugc wants only regular teachers from the pg departments of universities and colleges appointed as guides but this should not be applicable to all universities geographically speaking this region may have different requirements and the ugc should consider this we have asked teachers and students associations and organizations to raise this issue from their side as well he said he added that many qualified teachers who work in undergraduate colleges have automatically lost a chance to guide students despite having substantial experience and good feedback more also said that the university had written a letter to the ugc on september 2 stating that it does not have separate pg colleges however the academic council approved some ug colleges as pg and research centres the university had asked for the ugcs guidance but there has been no response so far akhil bharatiya vidya parishad abvp member amit vaidya said we have checked all the guidelines by the ugc and they seem fair the decision was taken after considering falling standards of research material by phd candidates he said that the ugc has raised its concerns on the number of phd degrees awarded the university should have told aspirants about the change in guidelines while they were applying this is no longer a local issue said vaidya a ugc circular on july 6 stated that external supervisors will not be eligible to be phd guides many sukaffiliated colleges offer ug education and there are fewer teachers for pg the university notified candidates that seats offered for phd and mphil may reduce by as much as 90 per cent a ugc directive mentioned that any phdmphil degree whose supervisor is not a faculty member of the university or its affiliated pg colleges and institutes would be a violation of regulationsthe issue as per ugc circular on july 6 external supervisors are not eligible to be phd guides only regular faculty members can guide research scholars despite the ugc guidelines suk offered 900 phd seats but then reduced the number by 90 per cent university officials are saying that the guidelines needs to be tweaked according to the region and that students and teachers should also raise the issue we have checked all the guidelines by the ugc and they seem fair the decision was taken after considering falling standards of research material by phd candidates the university should have told aspirants about the change in guidelines while they were applying this is no longer a local issue said amit vaidya akhil bharatiya vidya parishad member