Five varsity sections function without department heads

Five departments within the Mumbai university’s Kalina campus have been functioning without a Head of Department (HoD) for almost a month now.

Five departments within the Mumbai university’s Kalina campus have been functioning without a Head of Department (HoD) for almost a month now.

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Of the 30 departments at the university, the Marathi, Psychology, Life Sciences, Sociology and Information Science have been managing without HoDs because of a delay in the appointment of a head after the earlier incumbent’s tenure ended.

“Each HOD has a rotational tenure of three years. In this case, some department’s HOD’s tenures have ended but the varsity is yet to replace them. This creates a number of problems for the students,” said Dilip Karande, Management Council member.

Apart from the departments, the Institute of Distance and Open learning (IDOL), which has around 70,000 enrolled students, has no official director in place.

The current head, D Harichandan, has been essaying the role of ‘professor cum director’ for a long time now.

“IDOL has a huge number of students and many subjects under it. Not having a designated director is a serious issue. Though the current head is doing a good job, its time the authorities understand the seriousness of the issue,” said a senate member.

“The university is in the process of appointing the new HOD which takes time. However, there is always another authority present to address issues of the respective departments so that students or the administration do not end up suffering. In fact, we have also extended t he t enure of some,” said Naresh Chandra, pro- vice chancellor.