THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Rejecting the government’s nominees, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has given the charge of vice-chancellor of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) to Prof Ciza Thomas, presently Senior Joint Director in the Directorate of Technical Education, pending appointment of a regular VC.
A notification issued by the Raj Bhavan on Thursday said Ciza shall “exercise the powers and perform the duties of vice-chancellor in addition to her normal duties.” The appointment of a temporary vice-chancellor was necessitated after the Supreme Court ruled that the appointment of Vice-Chancellor M S Rajasree was “void ab-initio” as the selection process was in violation of UGC regulations.
Ciza, who did her BTech and MTech from College of Engineering, Trivandrum, and PhD from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, has seven years’ experience as a professor and over three years’ administrative experience. She assumed the post of Senior Joint Director in DTE in 2019 and also Director-in charge of DTE for three months.
According to the KTU Act, the Chancellor (Governor) may appoint the Vice- Chancellor of any other university or the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of KTU or the Higher Education Secretary to the post, on the recommendations of the government, when it becomes vacant. The government had first recommended that Digital University Vice Chancellor Saji Gopinath be given charge but the Governor turned down the proposal as he was also among the VCs served show-cause notice by the Raj Bhavan.
Later, the government proposed Higher Education Secretary Ishita Roy to the post but it was also turned down by the governor on the grounds that she was overburdened with many responsibilities including as temporary Vice-Chancellor of Kerala Agriculture University.
ADDITIONAL DUTIES
A notification issued by the Raj Bhavan on Thursday said Ciza shall “exercise the powers and perform the duties of vice-chancellor in addition to her normal duties.”