Chennai: After being headless for more than six months, two higher education institutes in Tamil Nadu — Periyar and Bharathidasan Universities — got full-time Vice Chancellors on Saturday. Governor Banwarilal Purohit appointed P Kolandaivel and P Manisankar as Vice Chancellors of Periyar and Bharathidasan Universities respectively for a period of three years.
In a press communiqué, Purohit said Kolandaivel, UGC-BSR Faculty Fellow, Department of Physics with the Bharathiar University, Coimbatore has been appointed as the Vice-Chancellor of Periyar University for a period of three years from the date of his assumption of office.
“Dr P Manisankar, UGC BSR Faculty Fellow, Department of Industrial Chemistry, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, as the Vice-Chancellor of Bharathidasan University for a period of three years from the date of his assumption of office”, the communiqué said.
Professor Manisankar, eminent academician with more than 30 years of experience in teaching and research, said, “My goal is to make the BDU as one of the top ten universities in the country. I also have the vision to make the University one of the top 100 in the world”. He has guided over 30 PhD candidates so far.
Following the completion of term by Vice-Chancellor C Swaminathan on June 15, 2017, the V-C post in Periyar University was lying vacant. Bharathidasan University V-C post was also lying vacant since June 12, 2017 following the completion of tenure of V.M. Muthukumar
The notification for the search committees for Periyar University in Salem and Bharathidasan University in Tiruchi were released on October 4. The Periyar University V-C search committee received 194 applications. For the first time, the search committee headed by former IAS officer T.S. Sridhar has released entire list of applicants on the university’s website.
Bharathidasan V-C search committee received 241 applications for the post. This committee headed by another retired IAS officer Santha Sheela Nair had interviewed the shortlisted candidates before forwarding the list of three persons to the Governor Banwarilal Purohit.
