A Committee appointed by the UP governor Ram Naik to study the state of affairs of the 28 state universities has recommended granting more power to the Chancellor of the Universities, who happens to the Governor.

The committee headed by the principal secretary to the Governor Juthika Patankar in its report ` University management in Uttar Pradesh –A view from the Chancellors Office’ has said a University Tribunals to handle service matters and all other cases of a quasi judicial nature be set up or the office of the Chancellor be strengthened with more powers. The report of the committee was released by the Governor Ram naik here on Monday where the Vice Chancellors of all the 28 Universities were also present.

The committee in its report said ``from the analysis it is seen that several measures need to be taken to improve the management system of university administration in UP. Many of these would also necessitate amendment of the existing UP state University Act.

The report said essential and desirable qualification and experience required for the post of Vice-Chancellor should be well-defined and suitable provision be made in the state University Acts for the constitution of the search committee for selecting the Vice Chancellor.

The composition of the Search Committee prescribed in the UP State Universities Act 1973 should be amended suitably to include persons of acknowledged academic distinction and wide administrative experience. Procedure and timeline for Search Committees should be part of the University Acts in order to make the selection process fully transparent and the entire process time-bound.

Service conditions, kinds of Leave, nature of disciplinary proceeding, permissions regarding foreign tours etc of Vice-Chancellors should be defined clearly. There should be a mechanism for performance appraisal of Vice-Chancellors.

The report said the Vice-Chancellors should be invariably consulted before appointment of University administrative officers such as Registrar, Finance officer and Controller of Examination and all such appointments should be for a fixed tenure of three years at least.

The subjects and point of interface between Government departments dealing with University education and the Universities should be precisely defined and kept to the minimum so that University autonomy is fully facilitated and respected.

On the nomination of MLAs to the state universities the report said ``Public representatives/nominees on university courts, senates, executive councils or boards of management must have an academic orientation and not anybody or everybody should be considered for such nomination’’.

Expressing its dissatisfaction on the government nominees in Universities, the report said `` Government nominees on all the above mentioned bodies must invariably and sincerely discharge their duties and not remain absent as is often the case in UP’’.

The committee also included the recommendation of a committee set up by the state government headed by the Legal Advisor to the Governor to make recommendations for necessary amendments to the UP State Universities Act, 1973.

The report said `` the prevalent rot in the UP University system could also be stemmed immediately by the implementation of the administrative measures without going to the length of amending the Act. The measures include filling vacancies of teaching staff in Universities and colleges by expeditiously adopting UGC guidelines regarding qualifications, devising a template for the process of granting affiliation to colleges and ensuring strict adherence to the same within decided timeframe.

Streamlining and making transparent the work of evaluation of answer sheets, declaration of results by pressing into service all available teaching staff, adopting uniform online systems and enforcing strict standards. Activating the prescribed bodies of Courts, Executive Councils and Boards under various Acts to improve University administration and functioning.

The committee recommended that VCs to put in place grievance-redressal mechanisms to reduce service-related litigation and improve quality of administration. Sensitize all departments of higher education to appreciate the meaning and nuances of University autonomy. Improve speed and efficiency of government decision-making in all University matters which are referred to Government mandatorily under provisions of different Acts.