VC search Panel

Three VC search panels submit names to governor

Siddharth Prabhakar | TNN | May 21, 2017

Chennai: After courting controversies and delaying the selection of vice-chancellors to three universities, the search committees of University of Madras, Anna University (AU) and Madurai Kamarajar University (MKU) submitted lists of VC nominees to governor C Vidyasagar Rao on Saturday.

"While the MKU and Anna University search panels met the governor on Friday, University of Madras panel got an audience only on Saturday morning," a government official told TOI. This comes after the Madras high court, acting on a public interest litigation, on Thursday giving two weeks for the chief secretary and the higher education secretary to fill the VC posts. UNOM since January 2016, Anna University since May 2016. Madurai Kamarajar University has been without a VC since April 2015, Univeristy of Madras since January 2016, and Anna University since May 2016.

Officials said the governor had been unhappy with the very constitution of the search panels. Officials said the governor insisted on a retired high court judge to head each panel, but the state government has requested that this time the condition may be relaxed. It is not known if the panels' meetings with the governor happened after he agreed.

As mandated by the state government, each committee has submitted three names based on UGC norms. This has raised hopes among academic circles that the governor would appoint the VCs at the earliest on the lines of Tamil Nadu Fisheries University, where he interviewed the candidates in person recently. Higher education minister K P Anbazhagan is likely to be part of the interview process.

Sources said the governor has the option of rejecting the names, since the selection process and constitution of the search panels have been mired in controversies. Noted academicians and social activists have submitted memoranda alleging bribery in the process.

"The governor may accept the names and appoint VCs. However, he will resort to redefining the composition of the search committees by fixing certain eligibility criteria for the members, which is lacking now," said a source. The appointment of Surendra Prasad, a civil engineer and a research scholar in University of Madras, as VC search panel member had raised eyebrows though the senate had nominated him for the committee through an election. Mu Ramasamy, a member of MKU search committee quit the post after ten months of his appointment, alleging irregularities in the selection process.

But MKU search committee convenor C Murukadas told TOI that "all allegations are false". Murukadas was part of the VC search committees of Annamalai University in 2014, and that of Tiruvallur University the following year. The retired professor has had a stint in many central and state organisations, and continued to be a member of TN Backward Classes Commission for nearly 17 years.