CHENNAI: The syndicate of Anna University has constituted a three-member convenor committee to perform the duties of the Vice-Chancellor (V-C) from Monday. The tenure of MK Surappa as V-C ended on Sunday and a three-member search committee headed by Jawaharlal Nehru University V-C M Jagadish Kumar, has been formed to select a new V-C for Anna University.
The State government convened a virtual special syndicate meeting on Monday and announced the list of members in the committee- Selvi Apoorva, principal secretary to the Higher Education Department, Hans Raj Verma, additional chief secretary of the Information Technology Department and professor Ranjani Parthasarathi, the chairperson of the Information and communication, College of Engineering, Guindy.
Surappa has reportedly visited Governor and Chancellor Banwarilal Purohit on Monday morning to express his gratitude. While an extension of his tenure was considered, no orders were issued. His tenure as the V-C of one of Tamil Nadu’s prestigious university drew a lot of public attention.
While his entry itself was opposed by some who said he favoured the central government, the tenure ended with the Tamil Nadu government alleging corruption charges against him and constituted an independent inquiry committee. The inquiry was triggered after he allegedly communicated directly to the central government regarding the Institute of Eminence (IoE) tag for Anna University, which was ultimately rejected by the state government.
However, other academicians and politicians defended him fiercely and said that the Tamil Nadu government was conducting a “hunt” of an honest man. One of the highlights of his tenure is the introduction of online exams which were proctored by a combination of Artificial Intelligence and invigilators during the lockdown, at a time when other universities did not had a foolproof method to conduct online examination.