Nearly half of 40 central universities without full-time VC

Appointments of Vice-Chancellors at around half of central universities have been pending for months, even as the government embarks on an ambitious education reform plan under the new National Education Policy. Though key selection processes have been completed, the majority of these appointments are stuck at the Union education ministry led by Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

Eighteen of the 40 central universities currently have no full-time Vice-Chancellor, at a time when institutions are grappling with the challenge of imparting education offline due to the Covid-19 pandemic. By month-end, this number will touch 19.

The Vice-Chancellor position has been vacant since March-April 2020 in as many as six varsities. While the Central University of Manipur has been without a VC for a whole year - since February 2020, the Central Universities of Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu, Manipur, Hari Singh Gour University in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, are just shy of a year with the top-level vacancy. Since August-September 2020, there has been no full-time VC in nine central universities.


These range from the Central University of Hyderabad to the one in South Bihar, the North East Hill University to Rajasthan Central University, the varsity in Kashmir, the Maulana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad to the Guru Ghasidas university - all of them have been awaiting a VC since mid-2020. In addition, positions of VC at JNU and DU have fallen vacant since January and March, respectively, and BHU will join them later this month. The education ministry did not respond to ET’s queries till press time Sunday.

As per procedure, at least six months before a Vice Chancellor’s term ends, the education ministry sets up a search cum-selection committee to find a probable successor. The committee submits a ‘panel’ of names - mostly a list of three names - to the ministry for informal ‘vetting’ and ‘due diligence’. These are then sent ahead to the Visitor to all central universities - the office of the President of India - for approval, after which the final appointments are announced.

In as many as 10 of the 17 varsities awaiting a VC, the panel of names was submitted to the ministry by the selection committees months ago, but has not yet been passed on to Rashtrapati Bhavan. ET gathers that panels of probable candidates were submitted to the ministry between September and December last year for the varsities of Manipur, South Bihar, Haryana, Karnataka, Hari Singh Gaur University, Hyderabad, MANUU, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Guru Ghasidas University in Bilaspur. These have not yet been sent ahead for Visitor’s approval by the ministry, while three more panel reports have piled up before it - that of the central universities of Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and NEHU in January-February 2021.

The delays are seeping in at other levels of the selection process as well. While the VC posts at central universities of Rajasthan and Kashmir are vacant since September-October 2020, the panel reports have yet to come in. Delhi University VC’s term comes to an end this month, but no selection panel has been formed so far to find a successor.

The case of the Central University of Motihari is the same, as there is no selection committee working to find a new VC even as the term of the earlier one ended in February. In the case of JNU, where the VC’s term ended in January, the selection committee is still holding meetings.