Process to hire new V-C for Mumbai varsity to begin from January 4

Post has been vacant since Sanjay Deshmukh was sacked on October 27 for the results mess

The process for hiring the next vice-chancellor for the University of Mumbai (MU) will begin in the first week of January, as the first meeting of the search committee has been scheduled for January 4.

Former Mumbai varsity vice-chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh. (HT file)

“The first meeting will be held between the search committee and governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao in the first week of January, following which the panel will place an advertisement seeking applications for the post of V-C,” said a spokesperson from Raj Bhavan.

Former vice-chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh was sacked on October 27, 2017, over haphazard implementation of the on-screen marking (OSM) system that led to results mess at the university. The mess resulted in delay in announcing results by six months for the exams held in April-May.

Within days of Deshmukh’s sacking, Rao announced that scientist Dr K Kasturirangan would head the three-member search committee. In November 2017, the state government nominated CIDCO vice-chairperson and managing director Bhushan Gagrani. This was followed by the nomination of Dr Shyam Lal Soni, director of National Institute of Technology, Uttarakhand. He was nominated by the academic and management councils of the MU in the second week of December.

However, MU officials are worried about the slow pace of the hiring process.

“Our acting vice-chancellor, Dr Devanand Shinde, will eventually have to return to his post at Shivaji University, Kolhapur, before the next academic year. The search committee and the university cannot waste more time,” said a senior MU official.

Education minister Vinod Tawde told HT that the process for hiring a new V-C will not take much time because the search committee is in place.

“The state appointed the search committee chairperson in the month of October and now that all three members have been named, the process of hiring a new V-C should not take more than two months,” said Tawde.

The search committee

As per the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016, a search committee to appoint a new vice-chancellor for a university comprises three members — a member nominated by the chancellor (governor), 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 organization of national repute nominated by the university management and academic councils.