Two universities in north Bengal have once again become institutions without vice-chancellors.

The tenure of Omprakash Mishra, who was deputed as the VC of North Bengal University (NBU) for a temporary period of three months, ended on Wednesday. He was also holding the additional charge of Darjeeling Hill University.

Around three months ago, a similar situation had cropped up at both the varsities as Subires Bhattacharyya, who was the VC then, was arrested by the CBI in connection with the alleged SSC scam.

This made the state government remove him from the post and Mishra, a faculty member of Jadavpur University, was made the new VC.

“Also, a three-member search committee was formed to recommend names of academicians who can be put in the post. The committee submitted its report in the middle of this month. However, on one hand, the new VC was not chosen from the panel submitted by the committee. On the other hand, Mishra’s tenure has ended. That is why there has been no VC in these varsities since yesterday,” said a source.

On the last day of his office, Mishra had come up with a number of new decisions. From now on, library books of NBU will be available for students of Darjeeling Hill University and also for students who have enrolled themselves in courses conducted under distance education mode, he had said.

“It was also decided that during the next month, names of research scholars, their research topics, and dates of registration will have to be uploaded to the varsity’s website. Preservation of the research data is very important for any varsity,” Mishra had said.

A faculty member has said several administrative and academic works get affected without the VC.