Telangana yet to appoint Vice Chancellors in State Universities

On August 26, Revanth Reddy assured that the state universities will have Vice Chancellors in next 10 days to 15 days, however, the process for appointment of VCs is still yet to make any progress

Hyderabad: On August 26, the Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy assured that the state universities will have Vice Chancellors in next 10 days to 15 days.

However, despite the promised time line of the Chief Minister lapsing, all the institutions of higher learning in Telangana continue to remain without regular heads. And, status quo continues for the 10 state universities which did not have Vice Chancellors for more than three months.

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During distribution of cheques to civil service aspirants under Rajiv Gandhi Civils Abhayahastam on August 26, Revanth Reddy had said VCs to all universities would be appointed in 10 or 15 days. He also said professor, associate professor and assistant professor vacancies would be filled up in the universities.

However, the process for appointment of VCs is still yet to make any progress. According to sources, the government is yet to schedule a search committee meeting of the university concerned. In fact, the government did not constitute a search committee for selecting VC for the Kakatiya University.

As per the rules, the VC selection process involves setting up of a university-wise three-member search committee comprising one each nominee of the university EC concerned, the State government, and the University Grants Commission.

Following this, the search panels scrutinise applications and recommend three names to the government, which in turn forwards them to the Governor, who is also the Chancellor of the universities.

As there was a delay in the appointment of regular VCs to universities, the State government had in May issued orders appointing senior bureaucrats as in-charge VCs. However, senior bureaucrats, according to sources, were only clearing important files, leaving the remaining affairs to the yet-to-be appointed regular VCs.

“So far, I have not received any communication from the government regarding the search committee meeting. I have no idea why there is a delay in scheduling the meeting and appointment of the VCs,” said a nominee of one of the search committees.

Even before the VCs demitted office on May 21, the government on January 27 issued a notification inviting applications for the 10 State universities. In response to the notification, a total of 1,382 applications were received from 312 candidates, some of whom applied to multiple universities.