Frequent change of VC's affects varsities in MP

Updated on: Friday, October 08, 2010

Frequent change of Vice Chancellors in Madhya Pradesh's Universities has grossly affected the quality of education in the state.

"Frequent change of Vice Chancellors in various universities have not only affected the quality of education being imparted in these institutions, but also derailed the continuity of several academic programmes," a senior faculty of the Barkatullah University told PTI on condition of anonymity.

"These days VCs are appointed not just on academic grounds, but also on monetary considerations and this has resulted in frequent change of vice chancellors in the universities," he alleged.

The Barkatullah University here has seen nearly 10 Vice Chancellors in as many years and since the university was constituted, only three Vice Chancellors -- Professor R C Shukla, R P Mathur and I S Chouhan -- have completed their
full term of four years, university sources said.

After them Professor M S Sodha, Santosh Kumar, Harshwardhan Tiwari, Ram Prakash, R S Sirohi, P K Mishra (appointed twice as in-charge VC), Bhupal Singh, Ravindra Jain and Nisha Dube (current VC) were appointed to run the Bhopal
University which was rechristened as Barkatullah University in 1988 after Moulana Barkatullah Bhopali, who was the first
Prime Minister of Provisional Government of India established on December 1, 1875 in Kabul.

More or less similar, is the situation in other universities of the state namely the Vikram University of Ujjain, Devi Ahilyabai Vishwa Vidyalaya (DAVV) Indore, Makhanlal Chaturvedi University of Journalism and Bhoj Open University among others, they said.

Advocating for making appointment of the Vice Chancellors mandatory for a fixed term, Dr Hari Singh Gour Central University's Sociology Department Head, Professor Srinath Sharma said, "VCs are normally persons of eminence in the society. Due care should be taken in their appointments so that situation of removing them in an unceremonious manner need not arrive at all."

"Earlier, eminent educationists like Dr Zakir Hussain, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Dr Hari Singh Gaur were appointed as Vice Chancellors, but now everyone knows how they were being selected and removed," he said while highlighting the need for having more transparent system of their selection and removal.

Dr Gaur, who was a noted barrister, was specially called from England for founding the prestigious Delhi University and also donated his entire land for establishing Sagar University in Madhya Pradesh which was converted into a Central University last year, he said.

Former Vice Chancellor of Barkatullah University, Professor I S Chouhan, who also served as India's Ambassador to Fiji also advocated for having more transparent system of appointment and removal on the lines of constitutional posts for Vice Chancellors as frequent change affects academics in a big way.

Frequent change of VC's affects varsities in MP

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