A meeting of the syndicate of the University of Calcutta that was to be held on Tuesday to take key decisions was disallowed by the West Bengal government on grounds that such a meeting cannot be held unless the university has a regular Vice-Chancellor.
The university — just like many other universities in the State — has not had a regular V-C for more than a year now as the State Government and the Governor have not been able to agree on the formation of the search committee that names the candidate. As a result, most universities in West Bengal today have an officiating V-C chosen by the Governor, who is also their Chancellor.
Quite naturally, the State Government, which has hardly got along with the Governor in recent years (earlier Jagdeep Dhankar and now C.V. Ananda Bose), is opposed to these appointments, and their confrontation is directly impacting students, that too at a time when they have just been introduced to the National Education Policy.
“I am directed to inform you that it is learnt that a meeting of the Syndicate of the University is again scheduled to be held on 12/12/2023. This is not amiss to mention that there is no regular Vice-Chancellor appointed in Calcutta University. Smt. Santa Dutta (De) has been authorised to perform the duties of Vice-Chancellor. Under such circumstances, where there is no regular Vice-Chancellor, holding of meetings of the Syndicate will be in violation of [rules] if done without the approval of the State Government. No such approval has been issued from this end,” an official from the Department of Higher Education wrote to the university.
The university had planned to hold a similar meeting on November 7 but even that was not allowed by the State Government. The idea behind holding these meetings was to primarily discuss matters related to the semester exams of first-year students. According to reports, permission to hold a syndicate meeting has been sought — and refused — six times now.
“The first semester exams under the new four-year undergraduate programme are scheduled for January, but they cannot be held unless rules are not approved by the syndicate. Students have been asking us about the modalities but we have no answers until the syndicate meeting is held and guidelines are issued,” a professor associated with the University of Calcutta said.
Keshab Bhattacharya of West Bengal College and University Teachers’ Association said the confrontation between the State Government and Governor had put matters on pause mode in universities across the State and no one had an idea where this was leading to.
“Everything is pending in the absence of full-time Vice-Chancellors — holding of syndicate meetings, recruitment of teachers, decision on who shall be the chief guest at convocations, signing of MoUs. All these things are impacting students eventually, they are the ones who are suffering,” Prof. Bhattacharya said.
