KCR to replace Governors as Chancellor of Universities

Usually, the state governor is chancellor of all universities. But in Telangana, a new law is being enforced to replace the Governor with the Chief Minister as head of all state universities. The TRS government is examining various proposals to assume more control of universities in the state.

The government is considering amending the law to empower the incumbent government to appoint chancellors or even make the Chief Minister the permanent chancellor of all varsities instead of the Governor to give the government greater power in appointing vice-chancellors of varsities.

The TRS government is against this procedure of appointment of vice-chancellors and wants to amend the Universities Act. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had himself said in the Legislative Assembly that this procedure whereby “someone else” selecting vice-chancellors is absurd and the government should have complete control over educational institutions.

Sources in the General Administration Department (GAD) said that the exercise of amending the Universities Act was underway. UGC rules state that vice-chancellors should be selected from amongst a panel of three members only and not otherwise. The proposals being considered were to empower the government to directly appoint the chancellor, as is the case with the Damodar Sanjeevaiah National Law University in Visakhapatnam.

The Chief Minister can also become the chancellor if the Act is amended; some sources, however, said that this proposal was less favored. Sources also informed that vice-chancellors would not be appointed until the Universities Act was amended. Late Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao was the first chancellor of the Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University.