Mumbai university gets closer to appointing vice-chancellor

For the past two years, Mumbai university has been functioning without full-fledged bodies, as the state had put an embargo on elections

The final step towards constituting a search committee to appoint a new vice chancellor for the University of Mumbai was completed on Friday. Acting vice chancellor Devanand Shinde nominated a new set of members to its governing bodies.

Former vice-chancellor, Sanjay Deshmukh was removed from his post by the state governor and chancellor of all state universities in October. (HT File)

“They will nominate a member for the search committee that will appoint a new vice chancellor for the university. While nominees have been put together, elected members will join the committees later,” said an MU official.

Former vice-chancellor, Sanjay Deshmukh was removed from his post by the state governor and chancellor of all state universities in October. The decision came after MU failed to finish the assessment and announcement of results within a stipulated time in the previous semester, putting the futures of lakhs of students at risk. Deshmukh’s decision to introduce online assessment was the main reason for the almost five-month delay.

According to Maharashtra Public Universities Act 2016, the search committee to appoint a new VC must consist of three members — one nominated by the chancellor, the principal secretary of higher and technical education department, or any officer not below the rank of principal secretary to the government, and the director or head of an institute or organisation of national repute nominated by the university management and academic councils.

The nominees for the management council include M S Kurhade, Gautam Gawali and Rashmi Ojha while nominees in the academic council include Madhu Nair, R G Deshmukh, Ajay Bhamre, Kishore Sukhtankar, Cicilia Carvalho. As for the senate, Rupesh Malusare, general secretary of the employee union of MU, has been nominated by the acting-VC as of now.

For the past two years, the varsity has been functioning without full-fledged bodies, as the state had put an embargo on the elections for these bodies. The term of these ad-hoc bodies ended on August 31, after the state introduced a new law — the Maharashtra Public Universities Act 2016 — to govern the varsities.

While MU was supposed to form fresh academic bodies and fill up all ad-hoc posts with permanent members by November 30, the state permitted an extension till February 28. “All other posts can be filled later, but hiring a VC is a priority now. Once that is cleared, all elected members too will be brought into place soon,” said the official.