Telangana State varsities all set to get new Vice-Chancellors soon

Hyderabad: Nine of the State universities are all set to get new vice-chancellors by mid-April this year following the State government appointing executive councils for these universities.

According to sources in the Telangana State Higher Education Department (TSHED), the government has constituted selection committees for the appointment of vice-chancellors a year ago.

The committees have started the process. But, the process has come to a grinding halt following the intervening elections, shifting of the State secretariat and other factors resulting in the government not able to finalise the names by the second week of August 2019.

This, in turn, has a cascading effect delaying the appointment of faculty positions in the universities. Speaking to The Hans India, a senior TSHED official said, the about 280 applications have been received in response to an advertisement issued for the appointment of the vice-chancellors.

The government-appointed search committees comprising nominees from the State government, a member from the university concerned, a nominee from the UGC and the State government have to scrutinise the applications and prepare a list of eligible candidates. However, this process has come to halt.

Now, the search committees will recommend a list of eligible candidates against the vacancy of VCs to the State government. "The State government will have to select three candidates for each university and send the same to the State Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, who will select one among the three names sent for the post of vice-chancellors and the same will be notified," he said.

Following the directions of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, the TSHED has taken the initiative to expedite the process of the appointment of the vice-chancellors after it has completed the process of appointing executive councils of the universities.

"The TSHED wants to complete the entire process within a maximum period of one month. Earlier, the UGC has nominated members to the selection committees and now new dates will have to be sought from them for conducting the interviews.

It might take about one-and-a-half to two months to complete the process. Because, there are specific timelines mandated by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for notifying the dates of interviews, calling the candidates and completing the process and uploading the data to its

website.