Bengal education minister Bratya Basu on Monday said governor C.V. Ananda Bose was flouting
basic UGC norms while appointing officiating vice-chancellors.
UGC norms stipulate that a vice-chancellor should have at least 10 years’ experience as professor.
“It has to be borne in mind that when we are trying to comply with the UGC guidelines, which include 10 years of professorship — the highest professorship, not assistant or associate rank — as one of the prerequisites (for vice-chancellor). Why this is being defied by Raj Bhavan is not clear to us,” Basu said at his chamber in the Assembly.
He was speaking to reporters in response to a question on the appointment of an officiating VC at Jadavpur University, a campus in turmoil since the death of a first-year student on August 10.
The governor is the chancellor of all state-aided universities. Calls, emails and text messages from this newspaper to chancellor Bose failed to elicit any response.
Late on Saturday, governor Bose had appointed Buddhadeb Sau, who has eight years’ experience as professor in JU’s mathematics department, as the university’s officiating VC.
The UGC regulations on the appointment of VC says: “The vice-chancellor to be appointed should be a distinguished academician, with a minimum 10 years of experience as a professor in a university system or 10 years of experience in an equivalent position in a reputed research and/or academic administrative organization.”
Minister Basu said: “Probably, they don’t have enough (qualified academics) in their pool. Which is why they are getting persons from here and there, who subscribe to a particular political ideology. This is not a healthy environment for work. I do not want to comment on any VC individually.”
Sau, who is state president of Jatiyotabadi Adhyapak and Gabeshak Sangh, a pro-RSS platform, told this newspaper on Sunday his political affiliation “should not be of any concern”.
The chancellor had in July entrusted a former Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, Subhro Kamal Mukherjee, with the duties of vice-chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University. Mukherjee had been accused by some sections of expressing “bigoted views”.
The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment Ordinance), 2023, which the Bengal government got passed in the Assembly earlier this month in the form of a bill, says: “The Vice-Chancellor of the University shall be a person possessing the highest level of competence, integrity, morals and institutional commitment. He shall be a distinguished academician with a minimum of ten years’ experience as a professor in a university or ten years’ experience in a reputed research and/or academic administrative organisation with proof of having demonstrated academic leadership.”
The bill, which the Assembly passed on August 4, is awaiting the governor’s signature.
“It is not clear why the chancellor is not signing the bill and is continuing with the pattern of appointing officiating VCs. Provisions in the bill are same as in an ordinance that the governor had signed earlier this year,” said an official in the education department.
“The need of the hour is appointment of full-term VCs through the established procedure, which includes setting up of search committees to shortlist candidates for the job.”
Campus autonomy
Minister Basu said a university should maintain its autonomy, “but freedom should not mean doing whatever you like”.
“Swadhinata maaney swechchhacharita noi (freedom doesn’t mean one can do whatever one likes),” he said in response to a question.
“We want the university to maintain its autonomy. But that does not mean misuse of power. There should be a fine distinction…. We have left it to the universities to decide on whether they want to install CCTV cameras on their campuses,” he said.