Pro-Chancellor can’t work as VC: Educational panel

Bhanu P Lohumi
Tribune News Service
Shimla, June 2

The appointment of a Pro-Chancellor to function as a Vice-Chancellor is not recognised according to the University Grants Commission (UGC) and recoveries will be sought if private universities have made such invalid appointments.

Only official appointees can communicate

In a letter to the registrars of all private universities, the commission said that only official appointees — Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, registrar and chief finance officer of the university — would officially communicate with it and correspondence from any other officer or official would not be recognised.

The Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission (HPPIERC) had constituted a three-member committee last year following complaints that Vice-Chancellors (VCs) appointed by some universities did not fulfil the prescribed criteria. The committee had found that the VCs of eight private universities were ineligible for the post and were later removed.

“I have been informed that after removing ineligible VCs, some universities created the posts of Pro-Chancellor and made them officiating Vice-Chancellors, which is not valid,” said Major Gen Atul Kaushik (retd), Chairman of the HPPIERC. He added that recoveries would be sought if private universities had made invalid appointments.

“The commission has been lenient due to the ongoing Covid pandemic but the officiating VCs cannot continue beyond three months. Of the eight universities only three – Arni University, Baddi University and Chitkara University — have appointed VCs. We have asked the universities to appoint VCs and submit the details regarding their biodata, educational qualifications, and experience with the process of appointment by June 30,” he told The Tribune.

“When directions were issued to remove ineligible VCs, the university managements designated them as Pro-Chancellors or gave them other appointments. Now, these persons are again acting as Officiating Vice-Chancellors. Therefore, strict action is needed against these institutions, as they have bluffed the UGC as well as the HPPERC,” said RTI activist Rohit Bhagwat.

The universities had also been told to pay salaries to the staff and non-compliance of the orders would call for legal action, Kaushik cautioned. Complaints about private colleges not paying salaries to their staff had been received and all private educational institutions would be directed to pay salaries to the staff, he added.