The Search Committee for Bharathidasan University Vice-Chancellor has begun the process of interviewing short-listed candidates, so as to announce the chosen one by the month-end.
Out of as many as 241 candidates who responded to the advertisement issued by the Search Committee calling for applications issued during the latter part of October, 40 candidates were short-listed in the first phase, and it was further narrowed down to 10, it is learnt.
Chaired by retired IAS Officer Santha Sheela Nair, the committee with former Vice-Chancellor of Bharathiyar University, Coimbatore, Sivasubramanian and former Professor of Sociology, Madurai Kamaraj University, Venkatarathnam as members representing Syndicate and Senate respectively, had a series of sittings.
Those with administrative exposure are believed to have been prioritised during the course of scrutiny.
An aspirant was required to have at least six years of administrative experience.
In fact, a total of 246 applications were received, and five had to be rejected since they were sent after the deadline ended. Such a large-scale response was attributed to the collective integrity of the search panel in academic circles.
Those with lesser academic credentials and administrative exposure were simply eliminated, sources said.
There was a requirement for an aspirant to have published at least five research papers after receiving Ph.D. in UGC listed journals. Besides general information, the format required the candidates to furnish particulars about their educational qualification, present position, academic experience or service details, international academic exposure if any, administrative posts held in universities, post-graduate colleges or publicly funded research institutions, list of research projects executed, number of Ph.D. scholars successfully guided by the applicant, publication details (only research papers and not edited books), scholarships, awards, membership or fellowship of academic societies, other scholarly achievements (paper presentation, participation and contribution in area of academic or professional expertise, editing of journals, consultancy experience, and important MoUs entered into for academic collaborations), details of three national or international academic or research referees, significant innovations in area of specialisation, and description of vision for the university in 500 words.
Most importantly, the candidates had to declare that they had not been convicted for any offence and that there were no criminal or departmental proceedings pending or contemplated against them.
