E-Paper
Renu Vig is Panjab University V-C, first woman to hold the post
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar has appointed Professor Renu Cheema Vig the 14th vice-chancellor of Panjab University (PU), making her the first woman to hold the position in the varsity’s history
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar has appointed Professor Renu Cheema Vig the 14th vice-chancellor of Panjab University (PU), making her the first woman to hold the position in the varsity’s history.
Exercising the powers conferred by Section 10 of the Panjab University Act, 1947, Vice-President Dhankhar, who is also the PU chancellor, made the appointment for a term of three years.
It comes just five days after the deadline for submitting the applications ended.
The post had fallen vacant in January this year after former V-C Raj Kumar put in his papers amid growing corruption allegations within the varsity. Though Kumar had resigned from the post on January 10, almost a year-and-a-half before the end of his second term, citing personal reasons, it was accepted by Vice-President Dhankar on January 13.
After Kumar’s resignation, Vij, who was then holding the charge of dean, university instructions, was appointed the acting V-C.
Consequently, a three-member search-cum-selection committee was constituted on March 21, 2023, for recommending names for the position. Vig’s appointment follows the committee’s report.
The post was advertised last month, with the application deadline being set for March 24. PU had received 150-odd applications, around 20 of which were from the university campus.
Her priorities as VC
After assuming charge on Wednesday, Prof Vig said that improving the university’s rankings and implementing the National Educational Policy (NEP-2020) would be among her top priorities. She also said efforts would be made to get the varsity’s grants enhanced so as to meet the growing financial needs.
She said, “We are working on offering flexibility to students and focusing on innovative and skill-oriented courses, so that employment is enhanced. We will train our students according to the requirements of the industry, besides encouraging them to go for self-employment.”
Regarding the upcoming NAAC accreditation of PU, Vig said the university is already in the process of submitting its Self-Study Report (SSR) to NAAC for the next round of accreditation. “We have been deliberating on how we can improve our system so that the rankings are improved,”
On the recruitment of the faculty, she said, “We have constituted a committee that will look into the recruitment of teachers. It is to decide whether we go ahead with the posts that have already been advertised or re-advertise the teaching posts, as there are departments where there is no faculty and we have to prioritise those departments for recruitments as well.”
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Know the V-C
An alumna of Punjab Engineering College (PEC), Vig joined PU’s University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) as a reader (associate in professor) in 2003.
She was the first woman teaching assistant at PEC in 1985, days after she graduated in electronics and communication. She was also among the first women to continue teaching and studying as she pursued engineering from PEC. She remained the director of UIET from 2009 to 2017.
Pop-up quote:
All stakeholders -- students, faculty, staff and alumni -- have to realise their responsibility and work hard to take the university to glory.
Prof Renu Vig, Panjab University V-C
Major challenges
Improving rankings
PU has fared poorly in various global and national rankings of late. This even as some private universities of the region have been ranked higher than PU in recent times. In June last year, PU once again failed to feature in the top 1,000 of the QS World University Rankings 2023. The varsity also slipped in the Union education ministry’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2022 announced in July.
NEP implementation
The varsity had initiated NEP-2020 implementation but it is in the initial stages. The issue of governance reforms which has remained a much-debated issue in recent years will also be a challenge. A few attempts were made in the past to bring reforms in PU’s governing structure but with no conclusion.
Faculty recruitment
Reeling under an acute faculty crunch, many departments have not hired new teachers since 2014. The humanities and languages departments are the worst-affected. Against the 1,378 sanctioned positions, the university has only around 630 permanent faculty members at present. The recruitment process of over 50 teachers initiated recently by PU is hanging in the balance.
Financial woes
The university’s financial woes are not new, however, the implementation of the revised pay scales for teaching and non-teaching staff has made it worse. The implementation of revised pay scales for both teaching and non-teaching staff will translate into a one-time burden of ₹277 crore due to arrears since 2016, along with ₹56 crore recurring liability, including pension.
NAAC accreditation
The varsity is in the process of preparing for the next round of NAAC accreditation. Notably, PU’s NAAC grade had expired on June 24 last year but the varsity was not ready to go for another round of accreditation at the time. During the last NAAC visit in 2015, the council had given the university an A-grade with a comprehensive score of 3.35 out of four. The re-application process has been significantly delayed because the university last year struggled to collect data for SSR.
