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Changes in Acts of varsities mooted

G. Krishnakumar

Committee recommends reducing the size of Syndicate and Senate

KOCHI: The draft report of the committee to review the Acts of universities in the State has recommended major changes, including the creation of statutory structures that would distance the Governor and Education Minister from the day-to-day administration of the universities and reduce the size of the Syndicate, Senate and the Academic Council.

Stating that it is equally important to ensure that neither the Governor nor the Minister for Education interferes with the day-to-day functioning of the universities, the committee, headed by M. Anandakrishnan, chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT, Kanpur, recommended that the Governor may exercise his powers through a Chancellor, who could be an academic of national repute nominated by him/her. The Minister in charge of Education, who is also Chairman of the State Council for Higher Education, can communicate the views of the government to the universities through the Vice-Chairman of the State council.

Observing that the existing provision that the Minister-in-charge of Education shall exercise all powers and perform all functions of the Chancellor in his absence is redundant, the committee suggested that the provision enabling the Minister to act on behalf of the Chancellor in his absence /inability may be deleted from the university Act.

State UGC

Restricting the strength of the university Syndicate to 15 members, the committee suggested that one-third of it may represent the ex officio component, one-third teacher component and the rest may consist of representatives of students, educational agency and experts in various fields. The panel suggested that it would be ideal if the number of members in the Senate could be restricted to a maximum of 50,

The committee recommended the government to constitute every five years a State University Grants Commission (UGC) to assess the financial problems of the universities and suggest remedial measures.

Explaining that the new Acts should bring about a qualitative change in the academic administration and supervision of the universities, K. N. Panikkar, Vice-Chairman of the State Higher Education Council, told The Hindu on Friday that the council looks upon the Act as an enabling instrument to usher in academic excellence.

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