Tamil Nadu government, governor butt heads again over UGC nominee in V-C search panel
CHENNAI: After a brief lull, Governor R N Ravi and the state government are at loggerheads again over the constitution of a selection committee for choosing the Vice-Chancellor of another state university, the Annamalai University in Cuddalore district. Annamalai University is the sixth state university with V-C post vacant. The tenure of the last V-C of the university, R M Kathiresan, ended on November 23.
The governor’s office on Wednesday released a statement which alleged that the state government has ‘purposefully excluded’ the UGC chairman’s nominee from the official order notified through the gazette regarding the constitution of the search committee for identifying a candidate for appointment as V-C of Annamalai University.
The statement said the governor, who is also the chancellor of the university, formed the committee with four members, which included nominees of the chancellor, government of Tamil Nadu, syndicate of the university, and UGC chairman, as per the provisions of the Annamalai University Act and as per prevailing regulations of UGC, 2018, held mandatory by the Supreme Court.
Subsequently, the governor in a letter dated October 25 had directed the state government to notify the constitution of the search committee. However, the higher education department issued a Government Order on December 9 in which the UGC nominee’s name was not mentioned, the Raj Bhavan statement said.
The statement said the government’s notification is in violation of the judgments of the Supreme Court and contrary to UGC regulations.
‘Issue will impact quality of education in TN varsities’
The notification must be recalled by the state government, the statement said. A fresh notification including the name of the UGC nominee must be issued forthwith, the governor’s office said.
The fresh tug-of-war between the two power centres has triggered concern among state universities and academicians. “In the next few months, all our state universities will become headless with no V-Cs and the issue will have a direct impact on the quality of education in universities. The state government and governor should understand the gravity of the problem and find a solution, keeping their ego aside,” said a former V-C.
With the state government taking a stance that a nominee from the UGC chairman should not be there as part of the search committee, the appointment of V-Cs in University of Madras(UoM), Anna University, Madurai Kamaraj University(MKU), Bharathiar University and the Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Education University is hanging fire.
While the UoM case is in court, search committees for Anna University and Bharathiar University are yet to be notified. In the case of MKU, election has been conducted for choosing the syndicate’s nominee, but the government and governor have not announced their nominees.