VC posts kept in ‘wait’ mode

April 24: The selection of vice-chancellors for five universities hangs in the balance even after the respective search committees short listed the aspirants and suggested a panel of three names for each VC post to be sent to the Governor and Chancellor of universities, Mr E.S.L. Narasimhan, for final appointment. However, the state government failed to send the files containing the names of candidates short listed by the search committees to the Governor till now.

While files pertaining to Kakatiya University and Adikavi Nannayya University are pending with the Chief Minister's Office for more than a month, the files pertaining to Osmania University, Telangana University and Dr B.R. Ambedkar Open University are lying with the minister for higher education Mr Damodara Rajanarasimha, who is reportedly upset with the search committees for not following due procedures while shortlisting the names. He has been pitching for fresh screening of candidates by taking up the issue with the CM on the ground that the search committees ignored senior professors while inviting juniors for interviews.

The delay in appointment of VCs has been badly affecting the universities. The administration has come to a grinding halt in several state universities with no VCs for more than a year. Making things worse is the failure of the government to constitute the Executive Councils (ECs), the highest policy making bodies in any university, even after they were abolished in April last year.

Though the government has finally initiated the process of selecting VCs in September last year by issuing a nation-wide notification, it failed to complete the selection process even after seven months.
Now the fresh hurdle in the form of ‘holding of files’ in the Secretariat even after search committees recommended the names became a cause of concern for university officials. The higher education department is totally clueless on when the files would be sent to the Governor to enable him to choose one among the panel of three members to be appointed as VC.