University of Hyderabad (UoH) will create two faculty cadres, University Distinguished Professors and University Research Professors, to step up research.

The move is a part of a slew of measures, which have been recently approved by the Finance Committee and Executive Council to leverage the recently conferred Graded Autonomy.

The positions will be awarded through a rigorous process of scrutiny by external experts to facilitate highly productive and recognised researchers in the University.

These posts come with specific privileges in terms of emoluments, facilities and workload (in teaching and courses they can be expected to offer).

The expectations are aimed at continuing, if not enhanced, output of quality publications, patents and other outcomes. “With this measure, the University hopes to not only reward its best researchers but also position itself as a top-class space for research, where the work by such professors will be highlighted,” it said in a release issued here on Sunday.

Fast-track promotions for highly productive and high-impact faculty, from Assistant to Associate Professor positions are also on. The University acknowledges that encouragement in this fashion would attract faculty seeking employment even as it invigorates existing faculty to work better.

The university will also be amplifying the responsibilities of its Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), in keeping with recent developments and injunctions from the UGC about Academic Integrity, when promotions and appointments are made: subjecting the publications of candidates to qualitative rather than mere quantitative assessments.

Plans to restructure the role of the IQAC to improve the mandate for enhanced quality control are also being proposed, the release said.

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