THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has constituted the new short-term Syndicate of the University of Kerala by nominating 19 members. All the members except the newly-elected Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor have been retained in the list. Governor P Sathasivam has given assent to the ordinance approved by the government.
The nominated members, include six persons from the field of education, one teacher of the university, one teacher of a government college affiliated to the university, one principal each from the government college and an aided college affiliated to the university, two teachers from the aided college affiliated to the university, one student representative and six persons working in the education sector of which one is woman and one person belonging to the Scheduled Caste or Tribe. The standing committees have also been retained.
The chairpersons of the standing committees are K H Babujan (finance), P Rajesh Kumar (examination), J S Shijukhan (staff, buildings and equipment), K Shaji (affiliation), M Lenin Lal (departments and other institutions), M Sreekumar (teaching and non-teaching staff), S. Naseeb (research and academics), R. Lathadevi (planning and development), G. Sugunan (students discipline) and M. Harikrishnan (students services).
The syndicate was reconstituted after the ordinance period of the former syndicate ended on November 16. The first Syndicate meeting of the new panel will be held in the first week of January. According to K Shaji, a syndicate member, the first meeting would give emphasis to the appointment of teachers in various university departments.
“We have many priorities which need to be discussed in the upcoming Syndicate meetings and we have discussed many issues in the previous meetings too. Of many issues, our priority is to urge the government to report vacancies for the appointment,” Shaji said.
The next Syndicate election is scheduled for February 15 and a fresh electoral syndicate would be formed by March or April. Hence, the decision to be taken by the interim Syndicate formed now will be crucial for the future of the varsity.
The members of the Syndicate were elected as per Kerala University (Amendment) Bill 2018. The Senate was reconstituted last on May 17, 2014.