Kerala governor issues new guidelines for appointing chancellor’s nominee

Thiruvananthapuram: Governor Rajendra Arlekar has issued fresh guidelines for appointing the governor's representative to the selection committee for university faculty appointments, as per UGC regulations. Lok Bhavan has issued an order in this regard to all vice-chancellors in the state universities.The order said the existing list of the chancellor's representatives given to universities has been cancelled. For the past 10 years, universities have been including the governor's nominee from a list prepared earlier in the selection committees. It came to Lok Bhavan's attention that many of these nominees do not participate in the selection committees, prompting the issuance of new guidelines to the universities.
In future, before initiating the faculty appointment process, the universities should request for chancellor's nominee for the selection committee. The request should be accompanied with detailed information about the faculty appointments.The chancellor's representative will be experts in the subject to which maximum number of faculties is being appointed. Once the nomination is received, the committee must be formed and the faculty appointment completed within two months. If there is a delay in the appointment, a new nominee must be requested, according to the order. The new decision by Lok Bhavan may hinder attempts by some universities to rush faculty appointments before the govt's term ends.