The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Tuesday adopted another bill to empower the state government to appoint vice-chancellors in a state university-Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
Agriculture Minister MRK Panneerselvam introduced the bill, citing the Gujarat University Act, 1949; Telangana (Andhra Pradesh) Universities Act, 1991; and the Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000, and sought to empower the State to appoint the University as the Vice-Chancellor.
Earlier, the government introduced bills to empower itself to appoint vice-chancellors in 13 state universities under the Department of Higher Education, Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University and Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University. All of them were adopted by the House.
Currently, the governor is the chancellor of state universities, and appoints the vice-chancellors from a panel of three names recommended by a selection committee. Chief Minister MK Stalin argued in the assembly last month, “During the last four years, there has been a trend in which the governor is acting without consulting the state government as if he had the exclusive right to appoint vice-chancellors.”
He said that the government could not appoint vice-chancellors in the universities under its control and this affected their administration. “The state government is creating confusion due to its inability to appoint vice-chancellors in universities under its control. This is against the ideals of democracy.