The Governor has issued a show-cause notice to Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU) Vice-Chancellor A.V. George on the issue of sanctioning 77 off-campus centres under the university. The notice that was issued on August 21 stated that there were violations in the university move and they had come to light on the basis of a report submitted by the State government.
It has been pointed out that the committee concerned (of the varsity) had not discussed the issue of starting new off-campus centres with the government before including the subject in the Syndicate meeting held on January 17.
In addition, the dissent of the government representative at the same meeting was not recorded in the minutes. The decision to commence the centres was made at the meeting. The university had not taken into consideration the norms of apex bodies such as UGC, AICTE, and the Ministry of External Affairs to seek prior approval for opening study centres outside the country. Moreover, the Distance Education Council has prohibited the franchising of study centres.
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The notice stated that the decision to recommend the centres also appeared to have been taken in a hurry ‘‘as an out of agenda item’’ of the Standing Committee concerned of the Syndicate. It also appeared that there was no proper evaluation of application by a committee with members having sufficient experience and expertise. It is also mentioned that the request of the convener, Syndicate Standing Committee on Self Financing Institutions, to accord sanction in this regard had earlier been rejected by the government and the orders were passed on December 21, 2012. Despite the government order specifically declining the sanction, the Syndicate had taken the decision to accord sanction to the centres on January 17, 2013.
The Vice-Chancellor had been directed to submit his explanation within a period of 15 days.