VCs of universities in AP asked to quit their posts

Sources said the vice-chairman of APSCHE phoned all the V-Cs in the state and told them to put in their papers in view of the new government taking over in the state.

A few vice-chancellors asked the council vice-chairman whether any written instructions will be issued, asking them to quit their posts. The vice-chairman told them they can ask the APSCHE secretary in this regard.

It is said a vice-chancellors sought two to three days’ time, so that they could complete their pending projects in their respective universities.

Sources disclosed that JNTU-K vice-chancellor G.V.R. Prasada Raju is getting ready to submit his resignation. His tenure will anyway be ending in three months.

However, many vice-chancellors are a disappointed lot, as they have been appointed merely a year ago.

This step of the new government has led to a debate within the academic circles. Many feel that whenever there is a change in government, it must not impact academic appointments. Further, the post of a vice-chancellor is not political. A search committee is constituted to identify a suitable person for appointment as V-C of an institution. Then, the Governor, who is the Chancellor of universities in the state appoints the vice-chancellor recommended by the state government for a tenure of three years.

However, the trend of asking the V-Cs after a change in government started five years ago when the YSRC government had been formed. Some of the vice-chancellors had then been forced to quit from their posts.

In 2019, then APPSC chairman P. Uday Bhaskar even approached the court complaining of harassment.

Academicians have requested the government not to politicise the V-Cs’ posts and continue the bad precedent set by the YSRC regime. Vice-chancellors must be allowed to implement their plans of developing the universities academically and improving the educational standards in keeping with the times.