Section of academicians want CM to be made Chancellor

Kolkata: Academicians from different colleges while pointing to the chaotic state of higher education in the state due to the absence of permanent vice-chancellors (V-Cs) said that if Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is made the Chancellor then the problem of not having a permanent V-C in state universities will be solved.

Currently, Governor C V Ananda Bose is the Chancellor of all state universities. A group of academicians, including Omprakash Mishra, Gautam Pal, Malayendu Saha, Deb Narayan Bandopadhyay, Abhijit Chakrabarti, Anuradha Mukherjee, Ashutosh Ghosh, Ranjan Chakrabarti and Deb Kumar Mukherjee held a press conference on Monday citing the “severe crisis” being faced by the state higher education institutions in absence of full term V-Cs in public universities.

They stated that with the National Education Policy which includes four-year undergraduate courses instead of three-year being implemented in the state a crisis has descended in the absence of full-term V-Cs.

The professors also stated that a Bill was passed by the state Assembly to entrust the responsibility of the Chancellor to the Chief Minister, however, the final decision has not been made clear.

However, a teachers’ organisation of various universities said that political figures should not be made the Chancellor, instead academicians should be given the position.

The WBCUTA along with other teachers’ organisations and others have listed nine-point demands on the same day. The association said that these demands will be sent to the Chancellor and state Higher Education minister. If their demands are not addressed, then in a week or two they will start a full-fledged protest, a member said.

In their nine-point demand, among others, they sought the appointment of full-time V-Cs in all state-aided universities and the appointment of interim V-Cs in universities which are running without one.