From Our Correspondent
CHENNAI : On July 8 two Bills were introduced in Tamil Nadu Assembly here seeking to specify qualifications for the vice-chancellors of the state universities and to set a time limit of six months within which the process of appointment of VCs is to be completed.

The Bills — ‘Chennai University (Amendment) Bill, 2017’ and ‘Tamil Nadu Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2017’ — introduced by Higher Education Minister K.P. Anbalagan also specify qualifications for Search Committee members. According to the Bills, the process to nominate members of the Search Committee shall begin six months before the occurrence of the vacancy in the office of the Vice-Chancellor and shall be completed four months before that date.

The process of preparing the panel of names to be suggested to the Chancellor shall begin at least four months before the occurrence of the vacancy.

At present neither the Universty of Madras Act, 1923 nor the establishing Acts of 12 other state universities prescribe any qualifications for the members of the Search Committee or for the Vice-Chancellor. Besides there is no specified time limit for the Search Committee to recommend names to the Chancellor.

The new bills specify that “if the Committee does not submit its recommendations to the Chancellor within the said period [four months], the Chancellor may grant further time to the Committee to submit its recommendation or take steps to constitute another Committee..”

In case of the University of Madras and some other state universities, one of the members of the Search Committee would be a nominee of the Chancellor, who shall be a retired High Court judge or the Supreme Court or any High Court or an eminent educationalist.

The Senate and the Syndicate of the university concerned shall have a  nominee each in the Search Committee.

For some universities, nominees are from the government, university’s Academic Committee and Executive Council.

Tamil Nadu Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2017 would replace the Tamil Nadu Universities Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 promulgated by the Governor on May 27.

Tamil Nadu Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2017 would apply to the appointment of Vice-Chancellors in Madurai Kamaraj University, Anna University, Bharathiar University, Bharathidasan University, Mother Teresa Women’s University, Alagappa University, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Periyar University, Tamil Nadu Open University, Thiruvalluvar University, Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University and Annamalai University.