The appointment of full-term vice-chancellors in six state-aided universities on Friday will end the practice of running institutions with stop-gap personnel lacking the authority to make crucial decisions or provide academic leadership.

The higher education department has notified that Nirmalya Narayan Chakraborty will be the vice-chancellor at Presidency University; Pabitra Kumar Chakraborti at Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University; Amiya Kumar Panda at Rani Rashmoni Green University; Kallol Paul at Kalyani; Rup Kumar Barman at Bankura; and Sankar Kumar Nath at Burdwan University.

An official of the department said a panel of candidates was drawn by the Supreme Court-appointed search committee for each of the 34 universities and set in order of preference by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee was sent to Raj Bhavan on November 21.

The chancellor selected the names accordingly for the six state universities so far.

Nirmalya Narayan Chakraborty, appointed at Presidency, is a professor of philosophy at Rabindra Bharati University and has been serving as Presidency’s interim VC.

He served as the authorised VC of Rabindra Bharati University after the governor as the chancellor of the state-aided universities, appointed him to the post in May 2023.

He served as the authorised VC of the RBU till July 2023 when the chancellor had him replaced by a former chief justice of Karnataka High Court.

Chakraborty was appointed Presidency’s authorised VC by the chancellor in June 2024.

Pabitra Kumar Chakraborti, a professor of physics at Burdwan University, was appointed as the authorised VC of Vidyasagar University in May 2023 by the chancellor.

He served there for six months and then returned to Burdwan University. On Friday, he was appointed the full-term VC at Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University.

Amiya Kumar Panda, a professor of chemistry and chemical technology at Vidyasagar University, was appointed interim VC for Sadhu Ram Chand Murmu University in Jhargram in 2021.

He was in the post till June 2023. Panda was appointed as the full-term VC at Rani Rashmoni Green University on Friday.

Kallol Paul, a professor of mathematics at Jadavpur University, was appointed interim VC of Sadhu Ram Chand Murmu University in Jhargram in May this year.

Paul was still on the job in Jhargram when he was appointed full-term VC of Kalyani University.

Rup Kumar Barman, a professor of History at Jadavpur University, was appointed interim VC of Harichand Guruchand University in May this year.

He was still posted there when Barman was appointed as the full-term VC of Bankura University.

Sankar Kumar Nath, a professor of geology and geophysics at IIT, Kharagpur, will now head the Burdwan University.

An official of the department said the names had been approved by the chancellor two days before the Supreme Court will hold a hearing to take stock of the status of the appointment of VCs through the search committee.

“What is more encouraging, is that the state government and Raj Bhavan have concurred on the selection, bringing to an end sharp differences over who enjoys the authority over appointing the VCs...and was affecting the universities,” the official said.

“The procedure that the Supreme Court had set in its July 8 order, has been followed,” he added.

Since June 2023, the chancellor started appointing authorised vice-chancellors allegedly without consulting the state government.

The government filed a petition in August 2023, challenging the chancellor’s authority to do so.