R. Thandavan to be Madras university’s new vice-chancellor

A new vice-chancellor for University of Madras is likely to be appointed on Wednesday.

R. Thandavan, former head of the university’s Anna Centre for Public Affairs is the frontrunner for the post.

Sources said the decision has already been made by the governor, and only the official notification is pending.

G. Thiruvasagam, who was the university’s V-C for the last three years, vacated office on October 12, after which a committee of six university officials has been administering the university’s affairs.

To select a new V-C, a three-member committee was appointed a month ago, with former vice-chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University T Audiseshan as the head, director of faculty of science and humanities at SRM University R. Balasubramaniam as the syndicate nominee and former vice chancellor of the University of Madras S. Sathikh as the senate nominee.

The committee recently submitted the three names it had chose to the governor.

The names of M. Kandaswamy, head of the university’s department of inorganic chemistry, S. Sriman Narayanan, from the school of nanosciences and photonics, H. Devaraj, from the department of zoology and R. Thilagaraj were under consideration too, according to sources.

“What we need is a V-C who will have a vision for the university and take it forward. It has to start with making new appointments as every department has five or more vacancies,” said a member of the Madras University Teachers’ Association.

The university is yet to get a full time registrar after the earlier one resigned, following a controversy over malpractices in university examinations. “Many financial decisions are pending and this 150-year-old university has lost a lot of lustre in the recent controversies related to exam frauds. The new V-C should expedite enquiry procedures and also initiate new programmes to make the university a better place,” said a member of the Professors Forum at the university.

Referring to Prof. Thandavan’s candidacy, a senior university professor said, “He is close to political leaders and has also studied the way this government works. He has been a syndicate member three times and has ample experience in administration.”