BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal of the Higher Education department for promulgation of ‘Odisha Universities (Amendment) Ordinance 2020’ to amend the Odisha Universities Act, 1989 and repeal the Ravenshaw University Act, 2005.
Briefing media about the decisions of the State Cabinet held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik through a virtual platform, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said the idea behind the move to bring all universities of the State under one Act. Ravenshaw will now come under the purview of the Odisha Universities Act, 1989 and continue to function as usual.
At present, Ravenshaw is a unitary university which was established under the Ravenshaw University Act, 2005. On the other hand, Gangadhar Meher University and Khallikote University, which are also unitary universities, were established under the Odisha Universities Act, 1989.“Having many Acts will lead to disharmony between identical provisions of various Acts. Therefore, it was decided to repeal the Ravenshaw University Act, 2005,” he said.
Tripathy said the other proposal of the department is to do away with the Senate, the highest authority of a university. Over the years, it has become dysfunctional, so the Cabinet decided to abolish it.
He said Syndicate will function as the highest authority of a university and it will be restructured to make it more functional and professional. In the restructured Syndicate, there will be adequate representation of the Chancellor as well as the State Government.
Henceforth, the tenure of Vice-Chancellors will be enhanced from 3 to 4 years so that they can make long-term contribution to the varsity. The upper age limit to hold the post of Vice-Chancellor will be enhanced from 65 to 67 years. This apart, no Vice-Chancellor will be re-appointed as VC of the same university for the second time.
At present, the Government does not have a say in the three-member search committee constituted by the Chancellor for selection of VCs. Therefore, an eminent academician nominated by the Government shall be made a member of the committee in place of the nominee of the Syndicate of the university concerned.
To avoid collective wastage of time and resources for recruitment of teachers in the universities, the Cabinet decided that the same will now be done centrally by OPSC.
For recruitment of non-teaching employees in the universities, the job will be handed over to the State Selection Board.