Ordinance promulgated by Governor: Search panels for V-Cs to have CM, UGC nominees

Interestingly, the state university for which the vice-chancellors will be appointed will not have any representative in the search committee.

According to the ordinance, the committee will have one representative each nominated by the CM, state Education Department, state Higher Education Council, University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Governor, who is ex officio chancellor of all state universities.

Earlier, the search committees comprised three members who were nominated by the state Education Department, the state university concerned and the governor.

In the previous Left Front government in the state, the three-member search committee had one representative each of the UGC, the state university concerned and the governor. That system continued for three years even after the Trinamool Congress came to power in the state for the first time in 2011. However, in 2014, the then state education minister Partha Chatterjee introduced a system which did not have any UGC-nominated representative in the search committee.

The VCs appointed by the search committee without having an UGC representative faced legal huddles in courts that even cancelled their appointments or re-appointments. In the new system which will be in effective henceforth, the state government has ensured that its nominated members have a numerical majority in the search committee.

When asked during a press conference at the state secretariat, the Chief Minister said, “The Governor has already given his consent to the ordinance. Now the matter is in the hands of Education Department. You are asking me a question which is not possible for me to answer. It is a matter related to the state education department.”