‘T.N. govt. and Governor should set aside their differences for welfare of students’

‘T.N. govt. and Governor should set aside their differences for welfare of students’

E. Balagurusamy

The Hindu Bureau

Chennai  02.01.2025

The sexual assault on a student of Anna University was a result of “anarchy in the university system”, former Vice-Chancellor E. Balagurusamy said on Wednesday.

In a statement, he urged the Governor-Chancellor and the Higher Education Minister-cum-Pro Chancellor “to avoid confrontational attitude and work in tandem in the overall interest of higher education in the State”.

Ten days ago, a girl student residing in one of the hostels on the university campus was sexually assaulted, allegedly by an outsider. The issue has since attracted media attention from across the country. Anna University was ranked the best State university by NIRF in 2024.

Prof. Balagurusamy said the Tamil Nadu government and the Governor had been “at loggerheads for a long time over the constitution of search panels” for selecting Vice-Chancellors, as a result of which many universities had been headless for more than two years. Also, in the next few months, almost all universities will become headless, he added.

Given that many universities did not have regular registrars, controller of examinations, and finance officers, their functioning had been severely crippled, “creating chaos”, he said.

A further delay in appointing V-Cs will affect the welfare of the students, and the quality of education and research, he said.

Several universities had not held convocations on time, and degree certificates were signed by bureaucrats, which degraded the value of the certificates in the job market, he said.

Prof. Balagurusamy said the Supreme Court judgments on V-C appointments were inconsistent. “In one case, the Supreme Court cancelled the appointment of a Vice-Chancellor for not following the guidelines of the University Grants Commission,” he said.

In the case of Madurai Kamaraj University, the Madras High Court dismissed the Vice-Chancellor for not following UGC regulations, but the Supreme Court ruled against the High Court order and reinstated the same person, saying the appointment was made as per the Act of the university, he said.

“It is high time the government and the Governor kept their egos aside and found an immediate and amicable solution,” he said.