Hyderabad: The Telangana state government is all set to bring four new University Acts in the ensuing Budget Session of the Legislature in March, which will bring about radical changes in the higher education sector in the state.
For the first time, IAS, IPS and retired bureaucrats will be appointed as chancellors of state universities, replacing the Governor who used to be the common chancellor for all universities in state.
Telangana to allow private varsities
The state government had originally thought of appointing bureaucrats as vice-chancellors but dropped the plan due to legal issues. The bureaucrats will be appointed as chancellors as per the new laws for conventional, professional and specialised universities. A Private Universities Act will also be brought in for the first time to allow setting up of private universities in the state. The law department has cleared all these new Acts.
While the three Acts will be amendments to the existing Acts for conventional universities like Osmania, Kakatiya etc., professional universities like JNTU, RGUKT etc., and specialised universities like the Agriculture University, Health University etc., the fourth one will be to allow private universities in the state.
The Reliance Group had expressed its willing to set up a university in Hyderabad in the private sector when IT minister K.T. Rama Rao had met group head Mukesh Ambani recently in Mumbai.
“The proposal to appoint IAS, IPS officers and retired bureaucrats as VCs of universities has been dropped due to UGC regulations. The UGC states that only professors with teaching experience and research background should be appointed. If we appoint V-Cs against these norms, the chances of securing funds from UGC would be hit. Besides, the HC had made certain observations recently on not making political appointments to V-C posts and ensure academicians as VCs,” a senior official of Higher Education department said.
The state is thus planning to appoint bureaucrats as chancellors. It feels that this will give it control over state universities as the V-Cs would function as per the directions of chancellors. The government has invited applications for V-Cs’ posts from professors for all universities for which nearly 1,300 applications have been received. The selection process is currently on.
