The Telangana State government is considering coming up with a new legislation to have more say in the selection of Vice-Chancellors (V-Cs) and also to make them accountable to their administrative decisions.
The legislation, bringing changes to the State Universities Act, may be introduced in the current session itself as several universities in TS have been headless for more than a year.
One of the prominent reasons for bringing in changes is the controversy over the appointment of staff in various universities by the respective V-Cs while they were leaving office. V-Cs have been accused of “misusing” their autonomy and appointing hundreds of staff members including contract teachers, thereby violating norms.
In fact, more than 250 appointments made by Kakatiya University last year are under scrutiny as are similar appointments made by Osmania and Telangana Universities. The government has already ordered an internal enquiry to study these appointments.
“The V-Cs generally go scot-free in such issues. However, changes in the Act would ensure that misdeeds of V-Cs are questioned and action initiated,” an official, not willing to be identified, explained.
In the present system of V-C appointments, the TS government has a lesser say with the Governor holding full authority. Officials said the government was planning to bring in an amendment where the search committee presents a single name in the list to be submitted to the Governor instead of three members so that the government’s choice is “automatically accepted”.
“When the government gives block grants, why shouldn’t it have authority over the university?” the official asked rhetorically. At the same time, it doesn’t want to interfere in the academic autonomy of the varsities but only in “administration issues”, including the appointment of V-Cs.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) norm of mandatory 10-years experience as professor for a V-C aspirant is also being studied by the government as it is keen to reduce time. But there is also a section of officials who fear that whittling down the norm could lead to legal issues and the UGC may even cut grants to varsities.
