'Will Follow Our Own Guidelines': West Bengal Snubs UGC’s Decision To Scrap MPhil

West Bengal: The state education department has refused to follow the fresh guideline from the University Grants Commission (UGC) that discontinued MPhil as a degree. The state education minister Bratya Basu announced this on Thursday, less than a day after the UGC issued a notification warning that MPhil degree courses offered by universities are no longer recognised.

“The state education department will not be accepting this new directive imposed by the UGC. The state will follow its own independent education policy. We first need to have a clear idea on the matter. The central bodies cannot impose anything on the state. We will follow our own guidelines as suggested by our experts,” Basu said.

The MPhil issue has created another area of tension in the West Bengal education sector, which is already mired in a prolonged tussle between the state education department and the governor’s house over the appointments and removal of interim vice-chancellors in different state universities.

The UGC had earlier directed all higher educational institutions not to offer MPhil programmes and some universities were continuing with it. The fresh notification from the UGC came as a result of this.

However, legal experts feel that the state education department will not have much legal options in the long run except accepting the UGC’s recommendations on this matter. They said that since education is a subject in the concurrent list, the state government cannot take any decision that goes against the central act in the matter.

They said that if any state act or amendment in the act has a conflict with a central act in a matter related to any concurrent list subject, the clause of the central act will prevail in the matter.