West Bengal Universities VC Recruitment: Academics express concern over impasse

KOLKATA: A section of academics of West Bengal on Monday voiced concern over the current state of affairs in several universities and called upon the state government and Raj Bhavan to amicably resolve the impasse in the interest of the students and guardians. Pro-VC of Kalyani University, Prof Goutam Paul, said the WB College and University Administration Rules 2019 envisage that communication from the office of the governor to the VC or vice-versa should be routed through the higher education department.

"Due to the absence of full-term VCs in any of the 31 state universities, the interest of lakhs of students are affected. It is detrimental to the growth of education and research in the higher educational institutions," Paul told a press conference. Governor CV Ananda Bose, who is also the chancellor, recently appointed senior teachers to look after the affairs of 13 state-run universities.

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"It is unfortunate that none of these varsities have even interim VCs as the hon'ble Chancellor has authorised some senior professors to exercise the power and function of VCs in 13 universities" and this has been contested by the state higher education department, Jadavpur University professor Omprakash Mishra said. Mishra, a former VC of North Bengal University, said it is not clear when the search committee would be formed for the appointment of the vice-chancellors of the 31 varsities.

Paul said he felt as an academician that the final decision on a bill passed by the West Bengal Assembly to make the chief minister the chancellor of state universities should be cleared by the governor in the interest of the smooth functioning of the universities. Meanwhile, in another press meeting, several organisations of college and university teachers claimed that there have been attacks on the autonomy of universities since the Trinamool Congress came to power in the state and that led to such a situation. WBCUTA President Subhoday Dasgupta claimed that the process of recruiting permanent VCs has been stalled in the past decade and VCs are not being appointed as per UGC regulations in state varsities any more.

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He said a joint movement by all "fraternal university teacher bodies" will be launched soon as the functioning of state universities has been affected, as “two constitutional bodies” (the government and the Raj Bhavan) seem to be in conflict. Jadavpur University Teachers Association General Secretary Partha Pratim Roy said while the state has recommended implementing the four-year honours course at the UG level from this year, the stalemate is seriously harming students.

"We wonder if this could be a conspiracy to privatize education," he added. To fill up the vacancies in the post of permanent VCs in 31 state universities, where the term of VCs had expired in April-May, the governor’s office in early June issued a list appointing interim VCs in 11 varsities. Education Minister Bratya Basu had then said the Raj Bhavan’s decision is “unilateral” and “violative of the law”. He had also urged the professors appointed as interim VCs not to take charge as asked by the governor creating an unprecedented situation.