A tale of two universities in a fix

Updated on: Monday, September 19, 2011

As a strange coincidence, the two universities in Madurai are at the moment gripped with the same anxiety.

While employees of Anna University of Technology (AUT) are waiting for clarity on the merger announcement by State Government, the Madurai Kamaraj University is hoping to get administrative set up in place soon since several key posts, including that of Vice-Chancellor, have been lying vacant for the past several months.

In AUT-Madurai, the posts of Vice-Chancellor, Registrar, Controller of Examinations, Finance Officer and Directors will cease to exist following the decision to merge the five AUTs in the State with Anna University.

“It is not only the administrative positions that would go away but there are also question marks over the collaborative agreements signed by our university with various organisations. Teaching and non-teaching staff are anxious about where they have to go in post-merger scenario,” a senior official of AUT-Madurai told The Hindu on Saturday.

On the other hand, the MKU is yet to get signs of immediate appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor, a post lying vacant since April 20.

Also, some important positions such as Registrar and Additional Controller of Examinations are running on in-charge basis for a long time.

“The process will take time since a search committee for Vice-Chancellor is yet to be officially formed and notified in gazette. After that, the selection process begins and it may not happen immediately due to the procedures involved,” lamented a senior administrative official in MKU.

While the routine administration in MKU is being managed by a committee since April, the authorities in AUT have already received a communication stating that the curriculum for UG engineering courses will have to be under Anna University, Chennai, 2008 regulations.

“The Syndicates of AUTs have become null and void as they cease to exist. Students too will have some practical difficulties in accessibility to university officials. That apart, the research projects sanctioned for Anna University of Technology Madurai, Tiruchi, Tirunelveli and Coimbatore have become uncertain,” a senior faculty in AUT-Madurai observed.

The AUTs will become constituent colleges to be headed by a Dean and the other staff may be attached to Anna University or other State universities or some may have to go back to their parent institutions.

“When we can have Indian Institute of Technology at many places and also the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in at least three different places, why not Anna University at five locations? Decentralisation could have been a better option in the interest of academic infrastructure, students and getting job placements for students at micro level,” the official felt.

Another issue raised by AUT staff in the post-merger scenario is with regard to retirement age. “For university faculty, the retirement age is 60 years while it is 58 for college faculty. If ours becomes a constituent college, we do not know what will be our retirement age,” a faculty member said.

The suspense-filled MKU campus too is waiting to get momentum but it has to wait for some more time because a member on the already constituted VC search panel — S. Navaneethakrishnan, a doctor by profession — had to quit the panel following a police complaint in a case pertaining to usurping a private hospital in the city.

“Now, the Syndicate has to choose another nominee for the search panel and only then the process will move forward. It will take a minimum of one month for us,” R. Jayaraman, Special Officer, MKU, said.

A tale of two universities in a fix

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