Mixed response to Bill facilitating appointment of V-Cs by state govt

Chennai: The decision to adopt a new Bill facilitating the state government to appoint Vice-Chancellors in the universities has evoked mixed responses from academicians and educationists here.

Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy tabled the Bill in the house to amend the Tamil Nadu Universities Laws to allow the state government to appoint V-Cs.

Welcoming the government’s move, Tamil Nadu Federation of University Faculty Association (TANFUFA) president Dr I Arul Aram told DT Next that the bill will ensure that the state will have full control of its institutions.

“However, all the appointments of vice-chancellors should be made only on a merit basis and there should not be any political interference in recruiting the heads of the universities,” he added.

Association of University Teachers (AUT) Tamil Nadu president Dr P Thirunavukkarasu hailed the government’s initiative and said till now the appointments of vice-chancellors by the Governor pose a big question mark over their merits of selection.

“This Bill will improve the Higher Education System in the state and it would go in the right direction,” he added. He also alleged that the Governor was conducting a national seminar involving state vice-chancellors by ignoring state Higher Education Minister. “This is totally against the state education policy,” he said.

However, former Anna University vice-chancellor E Balagurusamy termed the introduction of a bill providing powers to the state in appointing vice-chancellors as a “wrong move” by the government.

“If the control comes to the state in selecting vice-chancellors, there will be a lot of political influences,” he said and pointed out that in most of the states appointing vice-chancellors are done only through Governors.

The former vice-chancellor said if the bill was implemented the standard of the higher education system in Tamil Nadu will be drastically reduced. “Therefore, the government should immediately bring back the existing system in appointing vice-chancellors in the state-run universities,” he added.Balagurusamy further explained that if the state government appoints the vice-chancellors, the head of the universities could not work independently due to various political influences.