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Journalism of Courage
In a major step to ensure autonomy of universities,Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Monday announced that a collegium of experts and Nobel laureates would select vice-chancellors to free the process from political interference.
The announcement is a major shift from the policy of previous HRD Minister Arjun Singh,who hurriedly appointed vice-chancellors,many of them political appointees,to 14 new Central Universities just ahead of the Lok Sabha election.
It will be a collegium of some 30-40 Nobel laureates and experts from fields who will recommend names of VCs to the government. The idea is to free the VC selection process from all political interference. Ideally,we would also like state governments to come up with similar systems to appoint VCs to state universities. The Collegium system should be in place within a year, Sibal said at the CABE meeting.
Senior officials said a search committee would process and shortlist applicants for the VCs job. The collegium would then choose a person and submit its choice to the government.
The provision for the collegium will be part of a legislation to create the overarching authority on the lines of the National Commission for Higher Education Regulation NCHER recommended by the Prof Yashpal Committee on Higher Education. The proposed legislation is already going through ministerial consultations and the HRD ministry plans to take it to the Parliament for approval this year itself.
Most committees on Higher Education,like Prof Yashpal Committee,have recommended freeing up the VC selection process from political interference. The PM backed National Knowledge Commission had also recommended that appointment of VCs should be freed from government control and peer review should factor significantly in these selections.
