E-Paper
Panjab University V-C Renu Vig gets four-month extension
The Vice-President of India has also constituted a three-member search-cum-selection committee to identify the next Panjab University vice-chancellor
The Vice-President of India, who serves as the Panjab University chancellor, has granted a four-month extension to vice-chancellor Renu Vig while also constituting a three-member search-cum-selection committee to identify her successor.
The extension will be effective from March 29, a day after her three-year tenure concludes.
The all-woman committee, constituted under Section 10 of the Panjab University Act, 1947, is chaired by Lt Gen Madhuri Kanitkar (retd), the V-C of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik; with Shashikala Wanjari, the V-C of the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi, and Vibha Tandon, director of CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, as members.
The panel has been directed to submit a list of three to five names to the chancellor as soon as possible.
Vig, who had taken over as acting V-C on January 16, 2023, following the resignation of then V-C Raj Kumar amid allegations of corruption, was formally appointed the university’s 14th and first woman V-C on March 29, 2023, after a three-member search committee picked her from 140 applicants.
Vig said her focus through the extension period will be on continuity. “My priority during this period will be to ensure the smooth completion of the current academic session and to push forward the pending infrastructure and research projects. We are preparing a proposal for a one-time grant for physical infrastructure, along with several initiatives and NEP related reforms in the pipeline, that require consistent supervision while the next course of action regarding the permanent appointment is taken by the authorities,” she said.
The four-month window ends in late July, coinciding with the start of the 2026-27 admission cycle. Her tenure has seen notable institutional markers — among them the NAAC A++ accreditation, as well as a prolonged period of campus unrest over senate elections, which concluded with the release of an election schedule in November 2025 after sustained student protests.
Senate elections are now scheduled for September, two years after the body’s last term ended in October 31, 2024. Vig is also a member of a Centre-constituted three-member panel, formed in February 2026, to examine PU’s proposal to raise the retirement age of its teachers from 60 to 65 years — one of several policy matters that will continue to require her engagement through the extension period.
