The question of post-doctoral fellowships: A feasible case for apprenticeship in university teaching

Among the organizations like CSIR, DST, DBT, etc., a few crores are designa ted for post-doctoral fellowships. The question of how effective these prog rammes are looms largely on the grant-giving bodies, at least when the advi sory committees meet. Inter-linked is the question of CSIR-UGC NET wherein there is an acute mismatch: those who want it badly hardly get through and of those who qualify, many opt out. The state level exam, the SET, has hard ly changed the picture at least in Maharashtra because the standards can be either lowered or not. The missing link appears to be the changing scene o n the sociology of science education in the country: are those with primary career options in science totally replaced by drifters or have the opportu nities dried up? The scenario needs to be examined looking for fresh option s. The key issue seems to be the role of 'contact teaching' at the Universi ty level, not so much for the sake of students alone but for improving the process of education as well as research.