Chennai: Following the decision to include University Grants Commission’s (UGC) nominee in vice-chancellor search panels, state govt is planning to amend the state university acts to uniformly expand the strength of vice-chancellor search panels to five members. Of the 22 state universities, 16 have been functioning without vice-chancellors for up to three and a half years due to the tussle between the governor and state govt over inclusion of the UGC’s nominee in the search panels. This has led to administrative delays, affecting academic reforms, research growth and hiring of new faculty.“All vice-chancellor search committees will have five members, including the UGC nominee and another member from either the govt or from the university body. The state university acts will be amended accordingly. This has been communicated to the governor’s office,” said a state govt source.“Once the amendments are enacted, the govt will reconstitute the search panels. As of now, state govt is appointing authority to 10 state universities, including Tanuvas, as there is no stay for Tamil Nadu’s notifications transferring the power of appointment of vice-chancellors from the governor to state govt,” the source added. A case regarding the validity of Tamil Nadu legislative amendments that transferred the power of appointing vice-chancellors to state universities from the governor to state govt is pending in Madras high court.An official from the higher education department said that Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and old universities in Kerala have UGC nominees in their VC search panels. “In a recent judgement regarding Puducherry Technological University, Supreme Court held that UGC Regulations 2018 will override state acts in matters concerning standards in higher education,” the official said.Senior academicians welcomed the decision. “Including the UGC nominee in search panels will give legal validity to the appointment of vice-chancellors. The objective should be appointing vice-chancellors to all state universities as soon as possible. However, the members of the search panels should be of prominence, including former vice-chancellors,” said Anna University former vice-chancellor E Balagurusamy.University of Madras former vice-chancellor S P Thyagarajan said including UGC nominees in search panels will not have an undue influence over the decision of the panel. “We have to look at the larger interest of students. There are no academic reforms, no new programmes, no new research or innovation taking place and no plans to mobilise grants in state universities in the absence of vice-chancellors,” he said.
