The Calicut University Employees’ Union on Wednesday criticised Vice-Chancellor (V-C) P. Raveendran for reportedly not granting official permission to anyone from the university to attend a State government-sponsored conclave to be held in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday (February 20, 2025) on the draft guidelines of the University Grants Commission (UGC) related to the appointment of college teachers and vice-chancellors. In a release, the union functionaries claimed that the V-C had declined the government’s direction to send at least 25 people from various fields representing each university in the State. They alleged that the V-C sat on the government file related to this till Wednesday (February 19, 2025) evening. Because of this, nobody was officially able to attend the conclave. The functionaries said that the event would be attended by Ministers from States ruled by non-BJP governments and the regressive proposals in the UGC guidelines would be discussed there. However, it is learnt that the V-C is of the view that university functionaries cannot officially attend an event criticising the UGC.