Haryana Government is likely to introduce a Bill in the next Assembly session to pass a common Universities Act with a provision to constitute Higher Education Council so as all State universities could work in coordination with the Council.
This bill would be brought in to ‘streamline and improve academic standards’ in the state.
Prof Brij Kishor Kutiyala, chairman Higher Education review committee (HERC), while talking to The Pioneer said that a proposal in this regard have been made in the draft by Higher Education Review Committee put up on its website asking the public to give their suggestions. The Committee was constituted by Haryana government on June 24, last year.
He said that a four-member Committee including himself,Prof.(Retd) Om Prakash Arora (Convenor), Prof. Rajnish Arora and Yogesh Singh ,VC,DTU (members) had visited all the state universities and other education institutions to get feedback from the academia to draft the proposals for the composite Haryana Universities Act 2017.
According to Prof. Kutiyal,a the committee is likely to submit its report to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal on February 21.
Besides many other changes proposed in the existing different Acts of the state universities, the committee has proposed a full autonomy for the universities in the state and the term of University Vice-Chancellor (VC) should be 5 years or till the incumbent attains the age of 70 whichever is earlier. At present, tenure of a VC is 3 years or till he/she attains the age of 68 years.
The committee also proposed that the Vice Chancellor designate shall join the university one month prior of occurrence of the vacancy of the Vice Chancellor in order to ensure the smooth transition of responsibilities and powers of the office of the Vice Chancellor. This one month time shall not be included in his term of five years.
The VC would be appointed by Chancellor on the recommendations of the Committee comprising of Chancellor’s nominee (Chairperson of Committee), nominee of Haryana Chief Minister and Higher Education Commission, a member nominated by Executive Council of concerned university, a member nominated by the Chairman, Higher Education Council, and a member nominated by the government, who shall be a Vice Chancellor / former Vice Chancellor.
The Committee have also reorganised the territorial jurisdiction of the existing state Universities district wise.