Selection of V-Cs: CM nominated representative among 5-member panel

kolkata: The Bengal government on Monday brought out a gazette notification ushering in changes in the formation of search committees for the appointment of vice-chancellors (V-C) in state universities.

Interestingly, the five-member search committee will have one representative nominated by the Chief Minister.

The other representatives in the committee include one from the state Education Department, one from the state Higher Education Council, one from the University Grants Commission (UGC) and one by the Governor, who by of the post, is also the Chancellor of all state universities.

In the existing system, there was a three-member search committee with one representative nominated by the state Education Department, one by the state university concerned and one by the Governor.

When questioned about the ordinance, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the gazette notification has been issued after receiving the nod of the Governor.

“It is entirely the choice of the Education department when it comes to the selection of the representatives,”

she added.

Governor CV Ananda Bose last Friday had given his approval in promulgating an ordinance to constitute five-member search committees for the selection of full-term vice-chancellors in the state universities

Around 31 universities in the state are functioning with vice-chancellors who have been given extensions. In most of these cases, their three-month extension tenure is ending on June 10. Calcutta University’s acting vice-chancellor has already completed his extension period.

The vice-chancellors, appointed by search committees without having a UGC representative, faced legal challenges in different courts and the appointments or re-appointments of them were cancelled by the court.

Jadavpur University Teachers Association (JUTA) raised their inhibitions over not keeping any university representative in the search committee for appointing vice-chancellors.

The Supreme Court judgement dated October 11, 2022, had mandated UGC norms to be followed in the appointment of V-Cs, irrespective of contradictory provisions in the

state Acts.