Among the recommendations are schemes for lecturers that will promote their professional development; the appointment of professors (and not lecturers or readers) in place of professors on leave at the same scales; the observation of at least 180 actual teaching days; curtailment of leave by four weeks and of casual leave to a maximum of eight days in the academic year.

Also, Desai said, it had been recommended that lecturers and senior lecturers should spend 16 hours a week in the classroom, while readers and professors should have 14 teaching hours a week. ``These recommendations have already been passed on to the HRD ministry and will be made into rules once they're cleared'', the AIFUCTO national secretary said. ``If the universities do not follow them, it'll have an impact on their grants''.

Desai added that the new guidelines also made it optional for the university to exempt PhDs from NET and equivalent qualifying examinations during recruitment, while marks for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe candidates could be relaxed by five per cent.