CM C. Joseph Vijay Directs Urgent Appointment of Vice Chancellors for 15 Universities

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay directed officials to expedite the selection and appointment of Vice Chancellors for 15 state universities during a high-level consultative meeting at the Secretariat in Chennai on Monday. The directive, which was announced by an official on Tuesday, also instructed officials to resolve the long-pending issue of vacancies in teaching positions across state-run universities.

The consultative meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Vijay and included Higher Education Minister P Vishwanathan alongside senior government officials. During the session, the Chief Chief Minister reviewed the fiscal health of the state universities and emphasized that addressing the leadership gaps was an urgent necessity.

Currently, 15 out of the 22 state universities in Tamil Nadu are functioning without full-time Vice Chancellors. The meeting also served as a platform to discuss various ways to improve the overall academic standards of these varsities.

The process of appointing Vice Chancellors in Tamil Nadu has historically run into rough weather. The previous Governor, R N Ravi, had rejected the composition of the Vice Chancellor-search panels that were recommended by the previous DMK regime. Governor Ravi had cited that the recommended panels did not conform to the guidelines set by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

In response to these disagreements, the DMK administration had previously made a bid to empower the Chief Minister as the Chancellor of the state universities. This move was intended to curtail the powers of the Governor, who serves as the Chancellor of the state universities, in appointing the Vice Chancellors.

In addition to the leadership crisis in the universities, academic associations have been urging the newly formed TVK government to take immediate action on other staffing shortages. The associations are calling for the immediate filling of over 5,000 teaching posts that remain vacant.

Furthermore, there are 124 vacant principals' posts across 188 government arts and science colleges in the state. Academic associations have stated that these prolonged vacancies have been adversely affecting the education of the students.