Government secretaries skip university syndicate meetings

Siddharth Prabhakar

Chennai:





State government secretaries who are part of syndicates of state-run universities rarely attend syndicate meetings. The syndicate is one of the three decisionmaking bodies of a university where crucial policy decisions are taken.

Academicians across the state say this is not a healthy sign as presence of secretaries in such meetings ensures convergence of policies of the government and the university .
“For instance, universities don't follow the government order that bars recruitment or promotion of employees who have only an open university degree. But University of Madras has promoted some of them in the past. This led to au dit objections which led to a cut in block grants,“ a senior official said. Secretaries of higher education, health and law are part of syndicates of University of Madras, Madurai Kamarajar University , Manormaniam Sundaranar University (Tirunelveli) and Bharthiar University (Coimbatore). Directors of technical and collegiate education are also part of the body .

A review of the minutes of l3 syndicate meetings of University of Madras from April 2015 to November 2016 shows that the health secretary and law secretary abstained from these meetings. The higher education secretary was absent in many meetings. Since January 2016, the higher education secretary has attended all meetings as heshe is the chairman of VC convenor committee. “The other secretaries come only during extraordinary situations,“ said an official. “The situation is similar in other universities. Syndicate is the place where secretaries can understand problems of staff and students, education policy changes and difficulties in implementing them,“ Association of University Teachers (AUT) general secretary N Pasupathy .

While University of Madras syndicate meetings happen on the university main campus, those of some other universities take place in one of the secretary's chamber even if the VC is present. A syndicate meeting of Madurai Kamarajar University was wrapped up in 10 minutes at the secretariat.“We are unable to raise issues at such meetings,“ said an MKU syndicate member.