Appointment of V-Cs: UGC guidelines or fault lines?

Not only is a V-C expected to be the custodian of a university's financial and intellectual capital, but also expected to show rare sensitivity toward the needs and problems of all stakeholders, including the teaching/non-teaching staff and the student community.

- Rana Nayar

Above all, he/she is expected to be an academic of exceptional merit and personal rectitude, who also has qualities of true leadership, courage and a definite vision.

Pulls and pressures However, the ground reality is quite different. Since most of the V-Cs owe their appointment to political masters, they have to work under all kinds of pulls and pressures. Much of their time and energy goes into dealing with the legitimate or not-so-legitimate demands of their political masters or their minions within the university system. The result: They hardly have any initiative left for either introducing innovative or creative ideas in the university or implementing their vision, if at all they have one.

If our university system finds itself at a crossroads today, one of the major reasons is that our V-Cs feel hamstrung. Here we are talking of the V-Cs, who otherwise mean well, but are unable to perform to the best of their ability or capacity, owing to the external factors. Instances of academics of dubious credentials to top posts of the university are not uncommon.