Patna University (Source: Wikimedia commons).
The Federation of University Teachers’ Associations of Bihar (FUTAB) has launched a formal protest against the Bihar Governor’s recent directive mandating five hours of daily teaching. The teachers’ body claims the order is a “contravention” of University Grants Commission (UGC) 2018 norms, which define the five-hour rule as “stay-in hours” rather than “direct teaching hours.”
The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) has now stepped in to express solidarity, writing to the Bihar Governor-cum-Chancellor, Syed Ata Hasnain, urging the withdrawal of the controversial order.
The dispute centres on a letter dated April 7, 2026, issued by the Officer on Special Duty (OSD-Judicial) of the Governor’s Secretariat. The letter directed Vice-Chancellors of all state universities to ensure that“all faculty members… mandatorily attend classes for a minimum of five hours per day, subject to not less than 40 hours of workload in a week”.
FUTAB president K B Sinha and general secretary Sanjay Kumar challenged this interpretation in a letter to the Governor’s Secretariat on April 13. They argued that while the OSD interprets the clause as five mandatory lecture periods per day, the UGC guidelines imply five hours of physical presence on campus.
According to the UGC Regulations 2018, the workload for full-time teachers is 40 hours per week over 30 working weeks per year. Teachers must be available for at least five hours daily at the university/college. The guidelines explicitly cap direct teaching and learning hours at 14 hours a week for Professors and Associate Professors, and 16 hours a week for Assistant Professors.
On Saturday, Aditya Narayan Misra, president of DUTA and the Federation of Central Universities’ Teachers Association (FEDCUTA), along with other DU professors, including Rajesh Jha, wrote to Governor Hasnain.
The letter noted that the distinction between “stay hours” and “teaching hours” was previously clarified by the Ministry in the Rajya Sabha and through official press releases in 2016. “The position is clear: a teacher stays for five hours, but teaches for the specific hours allotted by rank,” the letter stated.
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FUTAB has warned of intensified protests if the order is not recalled. “We have written to the UGC to provide a fresh clarification. If Raj Bhavan does not withdraw the letter within a month, we will escalate our agitation,” K B Sinha told The Indian Express.
A spokesperson for the Bihar Governor’s Secretariat stated that the matter is under review. “The Governor is looking into the issue. We will examine the legal and practical aspects of the letter issued by the OSD (Judicial),” the official said.
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