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In a major overhaul of the process of appointment of leaders in higher education, the University Grants Commission (UGC) issued new rules Monday which effectively give Governors in states broader powers in appointing Vice-Chancellors and opened the position to industry experts and public sector veterans, thus breaking from the tradition of selecting only academicians.
According to government sources, if approved as is, the new regulations will give Chancellors greater control over Vice-Chancellor selection. This will likely have significant ramifications for Opposition-ruled states such as Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Kerala, where the government and Governor (who serves as Chancellor of state universities) are currently locked in disputes over the top academic appointment process.
The new draft regulations — titled ‘University Grants Commission (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment and Promotion of Teachers and Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2025’ — have also removed the cap on contract teacher appointments.
The 2018 regulations had limited such appointments to 10 per cent of an institution’s total faculty positions.
The new rules will be finalised after the higher education regulator receives public feedback on the draft.
“The Chancellor/Visitor shall constitute the Search-cum-Selection Committee comprising three experts,” the new regulations state. Earlier, the regulations mentioned that the selection for the post of Vice-Chancellor should be through proper identification by a panel of 3–5 persons formed by a Search-cum-Selection Committee but did not specify who would constitute the committee. |
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