From Our Correspondent
CALCUTTA : Trinamul Congress' first official stand on Higher Education became obvious on March 1 when the West Bengal government declared the search committee for the Calcutta University vice-chancellor's selection.

The search committee comprises eminent sociologist Anil Kakodkar who is the Chancellor's nominee and would, therefore, head the search committee. The other two named are University Senate nominee Andre Béteille and the UGC nominee Prof Mushirul Hasan.

The names give a clear indication of the fact that the intention is to select an apolitical academician of repute without consideration of caste or creed and the move is being seen as the first step towards depoliticising higher education.

The search committee has been commissioned to suggest a panel of three names by April 30, when the term of the present vice-chancellor Suranjan Das expires.

The persons named are all eminent of which Andre Béteille, the Senate nominee, is to be watched closely as he is the man who would be expected to push for university's interest -- it would be he who would push the outgoing VC's name for a second term. Moreover the presence of leftist historian and a friend Mushirul Hasan would add weight to Suranjan Das. In fact the people in the know of things say the battle is already half won.

According to the newly passed West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Act, 2011 "The Vice Chancellor shall be appointed by the Chancellor out of the panel of three names recommended in order of preference by the Search Committee constituted by the State Government." This leaves little space for the Chancellor.

Earlier, the Chancellor used to select the VC from a panel prepared by the University Senate, that used to be the Left Front’s fief.

Chancellor Narayanan who chaired the reorganised Senate meet on March 1 suggested Béteille's name who is a local celebrity.

Other universities too are in the process of restructuring the administrative bodies. Apart from Calcutta University, the VCs of Jadavpur University, West Bengal State University, West Bengal University of Technology will be also completing their terms within the next few months. The state higher education department asked the UGC to provide the names of the nominees so that search committees for these universities too can be formed soon. “We should be quick to complete the process,” Narayanan told reporters. 

Bengal varsities bill gets governor's approval

CALCUTTA : On January 23 West Bengal Governor M.K. Narayanan signed the controversial West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2011 which was passed in the winter session of the Assembly.

Raj Bhavan sources said the bill had been sent to the government for issuing gazette notification. Once the notification is issued, the universities would start setting up decision-making bodies such as senate.

Bengal varsities' bill passed with 14 changes

CALCUTTA : On December 23 the West Bengal assembly passed the controversial West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2011 amidst uproar and clamour for multiple amendments.

Of the 126 proposals for amendment, 99 came from the Opposition, 14 from government ally SUCI and 13 from the Treasury benches. The Speaker Mr Biman Bandopadhyay accepted all the 13 amendments suggested by the ruling party and one from the lone SUCI member, Tarun Naskar, but rejected the remaining 112.

“We had three very clear intentions behind bringing in the bill,” education minister Bratya Basu said at the end of the three-hour discussion on the West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2011, which will lay down the law for 13 state-aided universities.

Basu said the state government’s main intention was to end political interference in the running of institutions of higher learning. The other two objectives were: bringing in transparency in the management of universities and giving academics a free hand in taking decisions.

“By bringing in the bill, the government has succeeded in throwing out the representatives of registered graduates from the universities’ policymaking bodies,” a former vice-chancellor of a state university said.

“The Left government had brought in the registered graduates (as a constituency) to keep their control over the universities.”

The bill also empowers the Chancellor to remove vice-chancellors (mostly political appointees) and gives the vice-chancellors the final word in faculty recruitment.

Left MLAs opposed many of the 71-page bill’s provisions and said they would carry on with their protests even outside the House. Leader of the Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra demanded that the bill be forwarded to the select committee of the Assembly for proper scrutiny.

During the House discussion, Anisur Rahman of the CPM had accused the government of bringing in the bill in haste.

“The government itself has brought 13 amendments. This shows that the government had drafted the bill in haste,” Rahman said.

Minister Basu, however, said in his speech that the bill’s passage would help achieve the goal of academic excellence in the universities.

“We also want to make it clear that the government will welcome more discussions with the Opposition MLAs to make the legislation more effective,” he said.

The 13 amendments proposed by Trinamul Congress members included one to induct the Madhyamik board’s president into the university courts (in case of Calcutta University, it is the senate).

Another amendment made the vice-chancellors the final authority in faculty recruitment, laying down that the selection committees’ recommendations be referred to them. In the original bill, the recommendations were supposed to be sent to the executive councils (the syndicate in case of Calcutta University).

Replying to this allegations, education minister Mr Bratya Basu said: “Left had changed the acts thrice after coming to power in the '70s. We are not claiming perfection. But we will continue with our attempts to achieve excellence, de-politicisation of education and transparency.”