Chennai: Even as the allegations of corruption in vice-chancellors’ appointment being raised by the politicians, academicians have expressed concern over the inordinate delay in appointing VCs to universities in the state.
Anna University Vice-Chancellor’s post is lying vacant almost a year now after M. Rajaram’s tenure ended in last May. The University of Madras Vice-Chancellor post also is vacant for more than a year.
The two well-known universities in the state are yet to conduct the convocation for the students who passed out in 2015-16 due to the absence of the Vice-Chancellors.
Lecturers said universities are crippled with many issues such as not filling vacancies and not allocating research funds to universities.
“Absence of the head of the institution is the fundamental call for the chaos in the university. Research projects are delayed because there is no head to clear it and lecturers’ appointments are kept pending because the vice-chancellor is not appointed. So in every way, the absence of V-C is the fundamental reason for the deterioration in the functioning of the university,” said M. Anandakrishnan, former vice-chancellor, Anna University.
“Many of the students get admissions and jobs abroad. If they don’t have convocation degree they are not eligible to join,” he said.
Professors from the university said the Anna University’s syndicate has not met for last five months. So many issues are not decided. In the University of Madras, there are more than 50 per cent vacancies in several departments.
A syndicate member of the university said, “We could not fill these vacancies in the absence of the Vice-Chancellor. The faculty members form the core of the university. Without the sufficient number of teachers, the teaching in the varsity is getting affected.”
“Our university projects are facing hurdles due to the red tape. The files are delayed for months as the convener committee rarely meets to clear the backlog of files,” he said.
Congress leader E.V.K.S. Elangovan has levelled some serious allegations in VCs appointment. He also said a former vice-chancellor of Anna University is trying to come back to the university by paying the huge sum of money.
When asked about the allegations of corruption in VCs appointment, Mr Anandakrishnan said, “They were not allegations and they are the reality. Everyone knows that money was involved in the VC appointments in all regimes.”
