Govt reappoints Pandya as Gujarat University VC

Govt reappoints Pandya as Gujarat University VC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: 01.07.2020

The state government today announced its decision to reappoint Himanshu Pandya, a professor at department of biochemistry and forensic science, as the vicechancellor of Gujarat University.

Pandya, who will be serving his second term at the top GU post, seem to have earlier fallen out with the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) after the GU students’ union election, held after a gap of four years in March. ABVP faced a crushing defeat at the hands of Congress’ student political wing National Students’ Union of India (NSUI). Many of them had alleged that Pandya supported NSUI to win the elections. Pandya’s name was among the candidates shortlisted by the search committee headed by Gujarat governor Acharya Devvrat. His first term ended on May 16 and the charge was temporarily given to Jagdish Bhavsar, pro VC of GU. The committee, formed in February to shortlist names for the post of VC, said it could not complete the task due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown situation.

What seems to have swung things into Pandya’s favour is the recent announcement of the all National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) Ranking 2020 by the Centre where Gujarat University made a surprise entry at number 60 in the list of higher education institutes in the overall category.

Last year, when the varsity did not even figure in the top 100 names in overall rankings in the NIRF 2019 list, Pandya, the then VC, had started various initiatives to raise its quality and standards.

“I want to take GU to newer heights. A research park that is currently being built will have far reaching benefits for the students, faculty members as well as the society,” said Pandya. He will take charge of the position in the next couple of days.

The three-member search committee included Kamlesh Joshipura, former vice-chancellor of Saurashtra University whose nomination was chosen by GU. Parimal Vyas has been chosen by the Joint Board of Vice-Chancellors (JBVC) is the third member of the committee.