Osmania University fails to get accreditation to conduct SLET since 2019

Hyderabad: Hundreds of postgraduate students in Telangana are at the receiving end losing opportunities to compete for the teaching position in the two Telugu states.

According to the Osmania University sources, accreditation given by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to Osmania University to conduct the State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) has expired in December 2019.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior OU official said that the accreditation is given for three years after a team of UGC officials inspecting the existing logistics, human resources, to assess whether the university is capable of conducting the SLET examinations.

The SLET is being conducted on the lines of the UGC-National Eligibility Test (NET) by the National Testing Agency (NTA). As per the existing regulations candidates who have qualified in the UGC-NET are eligible to compete for teaching positions anywhere in the country. Those candidates who qualify for the SLET are eligible to compete in the teaching positions within the state where the eligibility test is conducted.

Accordingly, TS SLET-2019 was the last SLET conducted in Telangana while the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and several other States have completed conducting the SLETs till 2020, and preparing for the issue of notification for the SLETs for 2021.

However, the lack of a regular vice-chancellor reportedly left Osmania University unable to obtain the extension of accreditation to conduct TS SLET after December 2019. "For it is quite a normal procedure that when the UGC accreditation team visits, it is the vice-chancellor who presents the credentials of the university to get the accreditation," said another official looking after the SLET affairs.

Further, inquiries revealed that there is no bar on the in-charge vice-chancellor performing the same what a regular vice-chancellor does for getting accreditation to conduct the SLET. However, the current in-charge vice-chancellor, who is a senior IAS officer reportedly failed to give sufficient time for the university affairs. In turn, UGC accreditation to conduct SLET has taken a backseat resulting in hundreds of postgraduate candidates lost the opportunity to appear for SLET in 2020.