Appointment of UGC’s Chairman will take time

The appointment of chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) is likely to take time as the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is yet to finalise the names for the post.

However, the MHRD has already constituted a three-member committee to search for a new chairman for the Commission as the tenure of Ved Prakash ended on 3 April 2017. Prakash had been appointed UGC chairman on 18 January 2013.

Currently, Professor V.S. Chauhan, a former Chemistry professor of Delhi University, is officiating in place of Ved Prakash. Chauhan had also headed the UGC Pay Review Committee.

According to sources in the MHRD, the search and selection committee would be headed by Dr H.R. Nagendra, who is Chancellor of Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA).

Sources have said that the government had also appointed two other names to be on the committee — former Lucknow University Vice-Chancellor D.P. Singh and former Saurashtra University Vice-Chancellor K.P. Joshipura.

The search and selection committee has not held any meeting so far.

The post for the vice-chairman of the UGC is also vacant, and the commission has published an advertisement to fill up the vacancy. The MHRD has constituted a separate search and selection committee for the appointment of the vice-chairman.

According to the sources, in order to avoid “controversies”, the MHRD, headed by Prakash Javadekar, has asked both the committees to consider such names for both the posts of UGC’s chairman and vice-chairman, who have wide acceptance among the academia for their excellence.

The members of the search and selection committee for the appointment of the vice-chairman include the Secretary (Higher Education), former UGC chairman Prof Ved Prakash, former Kavikulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit University, Nagpur, Vice-Chancellor Pankaj Chande, Karnataka Central University Chancellor N.R. Shetty and former North Gujarat University Vice-Chancellor Balvant Jani, sources confirmed.new