Number of prospective Vice Chancellors shoots up

With the State government’s decision to reduce work experience for appointment for the post of Vice- Chancellors to five years, the total number of eligible candidates exceeds 200 at OU alone

Hyderabad: The Telangana government’s decision to relax work experience of professors to five years from the existing 10 years for appointment of Vice-Chancellors is set to increase the chances of a large number of faculty members in State-run universities.

In Osmania University alone, there were around 46 professors with 10 years of experience, but now with the relaxation, the number of eligible candidates has risen close to 200.

Similar is the scenario in Kakatiya University, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University and Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University. In Kakatiya University, the number of eligible candidates after lowering work experience has gone from 12 to over 50.

“The recruitment took place in 2007 and 2008. Not many candidates will be available for the post if 10 years is taken as criteria,” said a senior faculty member of Osmania University.

The decision of the government is going to largely benefit the faculty members of Telugu University as there is no faculty member with 10 years experience as professor. Now with the relaxation, four members are eligible for VC post.

The decision comes in as several faculty members belonging to the SC, ST and BC categories approached the government, urging to lower work experience so that large number of faculty members would benefit out of it. Accordingly, irrespective of the category, the government had reduced the experience criteria for the appointment of Vice-Chancellors by revising University Grants Commission Scales of Pay, 2006. According to the order issued by the government, the Vice-Chancellor to be appointed should be a distinguished academic with a minimum of five years experience as professor in a university system or five years experience in an equivalent position in a reputed research organisation or a distinguished person with proven administrative capabilities.

“It is a good sign that the government has lowered work experience but it should have also fixed minimum age limit to 50 years. Candidates with five years experience are more in number and will be new to administrative work. They may fail to do justice to the post of Vice-Chancellor if appointed at a younger age,” said a professor of JNTU-H.

However, some faculty members do not seem to be content with the decision. They say lowering age is against the University Grants Commission (UGC) rules and the regulation which mandates 10 years working experience as a professor or worked as an administrator in a reputed research organisation.