Bharathiar Univeristy in Coimbatore is likely to get a Vice-Chancellor by this month-end.
On Wednesday, the list of applicants was uploaded on the University website. As many as 147 persons have applied for the post of Vice-Chancellor of Bharathiar University.
The list, however, has only the names of the applicants with the name of the city and pincode. It does not include any details of the candidate’s qualifications, including their educational background.
A former professor, who has been on V-C search panels, said such opacity could lead to complaints of lack of transparency in the selection process.
“Some universities that had uploaded the list of applicants had included their qualifications. Unless the whole process is transparent, allegations that vested interests have crept in will arise,” he said.
Search committee
The university has been functioning without a V-C for over a year. The search committee was constituted only in July and within a few days one of the committee members, the government nominee, K. Ganesan, resigned. The government then appointed Sheela Priya, former State chief information commissioner, to the committee on August 1.
The other two members of the committee are former V-C of Tamil University C. Subramaniam, and former V-C of the University of Madras S.P. Thyagarajan.
A member of the search panel said the list was only a preliminary one. “This is just an intimation put up on the website as to how many people have applied for the post. There is no evaluation of the candidates. The procedure is required as per the new rules framed by the State some time ago,” he said.
“A new statute mandates that the whole procedure should not exceed a maximum period of three months after the date of advertisement,” the member said. By this month-end, the committee would submit the recommendations to the Governor / Chancellor after which the V-C would be appointed.
