Headless Universities: Absence of VCs a chronic problem in Bengal

Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri

Kolkata, Feb 26 (SocialNews.XYZ) As many as nine state universities in West Bengal including the prestigious Calcutta University are currently operating without a permanent vice-chancellor.

The state education department has recently sought detailed reports from these universities about the problems faced by them in the absence of permanent vice-chancellors.

Academic circles feel that seeking a report is superfluous. They say that it is a matter of common sense on what kind of academic and administrative difficulties a university can come across if it does not have a permanent vice-chancellor.

They say that instead of wasting time on such fruitless exercises, the state government should take steps to immediately fill up these vacant posts of permanent vice-chancellors through search committees constituted as per the guidelines of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

As per the UGC norms, the search committee to appoint the vice- chancellor of any state university should have three members out of which the first will be from the UGC, the second from the state university concerned and the third will be a member nominated by the governor.

This UGC-notified practice was practiced in West Bengal during the previous Left Front regime, as well as the first three years of the current Trinamool government from 2011 to 2014, when minister Bratya Basu was in charge of the education department.

However, after Partha Chatterjee, who is currently in judicial custody because of his alleged involvement in the multi-crore teachers' recruitment scam in the state, became the education minister in 2014 replacing Basu, the state government brought some amendments in the legal provisions in the constitution of the search committee where the chair of the UGC-nominated representative was replaced by a state education department nominated representative.

There started a legal battle since the appointment of any vice- chancellor without a representative from the UGC was challenged in court. Even the Supreme Court had observed that the process of appointing a vice-chancellor by a search committee without any UGC representative was not legally tenable. In the recent past the newly appointed West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose made it clear that in his view a search committee without a UGC representative is not good in law.

Explaining the legal nitty gritty on this point senior counsel Gupta pointed out that although earlier education was a subject in the state list, but following the 42nd amendment in the Indian constitution in 1976 education was shifted to the concurrent list.

"This in plain words means that education is a subject which can be legislated both by the Parliament as well as the state assembly. However, in case of a particular matter if the state act goes against the central act, the central act will prevail. That is the legal issue where the state government's decision to replace the UGC-nominated candidate with the state education department-nominated candidate is facing legal hurdles," Gupta explained.

However, the state education department is working on a strategy to change the constitutional pattern of the search committees that will enable the entry of a UGC-nominated representative while keeping the numerical supremacy of the state government intact there. As per plans the number of representatives in the search committee will be increased from three to five, where there will be one nominated by the state university, one by the governor, one by the UGC and two by the education department.

Academicians say that while this strategy might be as per the provision of having a UGC-nominated representative in the search committee, the question mark over the state government's intention of pushing a candidate close to the ruling party as the vice-chancellor by virtue of its numerical supremacy in the search committee will continue.

Sources in the education department said that the absence of a permanent vice-chancellor often delays the declaration of the results of different examinations. "Apart from the problems faced on the academic side, in many cases the university authorities face problems in completing the necessary paperwork for timely disbursement of the retirement benefits of the retiring staff. In that case the pressure on the pro-vice chancellors, finance officers and the registrars of the universities increases manifold. Ultimately, academics takes a backseat in the entire process," an education department official said.

According to educationist PK Mukhopadhyay in the last ten years several new state universities have come up in different districts of the state. "While the idea of opening new universities is definitely welcome, what purpose will these universities serve if they start operating before their full infrastructure is in place. The absence of a permanent vice-chancellor is a most unfortunate affair for any university. Hence the first focus should be on trying to solve this problem," he said.

Source: IANS