Governor Banwarilal Purohit, who is the Chancellor of State universities, has said that the selection of the Vice-Chancellor for Anna University was done without violating any norms laid down by the Higher Education (K-2) Government Order 187 of July 14, 2017.
The Vice-Chancellor Search Committee followed the rules, which made “no distinction based on place/State or origin”, he said.
In a four-page press release, the Governor’s office said Mr. Purohit had appointed V-Cs to five universities, including Anna University, following the prescribed procedure. The search committee was constituted as per the GO 356 of the Higher Education department of November 30, 2017 and applications were invited by placing advertisements and calling for applications, the release said.
Scrutiny done by panel
The committee, headed by the former Supreme Court judge V.S. Sirpurkar and comprising the university’s Syndicate nominee R. Gnanamoorthy and Government’s nominee N. Sundara Devan, had scrutinised all the applications received and shortlisted nine candidates, who were interviewe d on March 31.
From this, three candidates were shortlisted — H. Devaraj, formerly head of the University Grants Commission, who holds a doctorate in biochemistry; M.K. Surappa, a metallurgical engineer by qualification, heading IIT - Roorkee; and S. Ponnusamy, a doctorate in mathematics.
“It is common knowledge that the UGC is a Statutory Body for the coordination and maintenance of standards of university education in India while the AICTE is the Statutory Body specifically meant for Technical Education in the country. The academic, teaching, research and administrative attainments of the 3 candidates were examined in detail by the Chancellor from 31st March to 5th April, 2018. Soon after the completion of the interview of the three candidates on 5th April 2018, the final result was declared and a press release was issued on the same day, to ensure complete transparency and non-interference in the process of selection” the release added.
“The selection was purely based on the need for Anna University to have at its helm a Vice-Chancellor who understands the needs of technical education in Tamil Nadu to steer the future of the university, the faculty and the students. The selection has been done in accordance with the laid down statutes. The selection was done from out of the list of 3 candidates submitted by the Search Committee which consisted of illustrious personalities. The whole process was fair and transparent. The welfare of the Anna University and Engineering Colleges affiliated to the University, faculty and the students was kept in mind when making the selection. Since there has been no extraneous interference in the selection and since the choice of the Vice-Chancellor was done entirely in accordance with the statute, it is requested that politics be kept out and unnecessary mud slinging avoided,” the release added.
