THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Falling in line with the governor’s “informal” directive, vice-chancellors (VCs) of state universities stayed away from the national convention on UGC draft regulations-2025 organised by the state government on Thursday.
Barring Sushama L of Malayalam University, all other VCs gave the event a miss. Governor Rajendra Arlekar had reportedly advised them not to attend an event seen as a political message against the draft regulations of the UGC.
Sushama reportedly has allegiance to a pro-Left teachers’ union. Interestingly, MG University VC C T Aravindakumar said to be loyal to a Left union, also skipped the meet.
“Initially, the governor was not opposed to the VCs attending the event. It was the controversial directive from the higher education secretary, asking universities to arrange a specific number of people for the event and to bear its expenses that led to his intervention,” said a source.
Though the directive was amended after Arlekar’s intervention, it still had the contentious provision that universities should foot the bill.
This prompted the governor to give an informal directive to the VCs to stay away from the event, sources said.
Higher Education Minister R Bindu said the VCs would have participated if they had the propriety to utilise a forum that was meant to discuss the draft regulations.