Two significant Left-leaning teachers’ organisations expressed concern over a ‘tussle’ between Raj Bhavan and the West Bengal Higher Education Department over the management of state universities and the appointment of vice chancellors on Saturday, claiming the situation was harming the interests of higher education.
In separate statements, the West Bengal College and University Teachers Association (WBCUTA) and the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) criticised the state administration for not including university representatives on search committees to choose vice chancellors.
The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill 2023, which increases the size of search committees to designate vice chancellors from three to five members, was approved by the state legislature on Friday. Governor C. V. Ananda Bose, who serves as the chancellor of the state universities, will be on the panel along with members from Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, the University Grants Commission, the state education department, and the state higher education council.
The measure was described as a ‘black act drafted in an arbitrary manner aimed at snatching the autonomy of the state universities’ by the JUTA and the WBCUTA.
JUTA general secretary Partha Pratim Roy told PTI, ‘Apparently, Bikash Bhavan (state Higher Education Department headquarters) and Raj Bhavan are engaged in a frontal war over total control of state universities. This is clear in the way VCs of 14 universities were appointed by the governor in June and the higher education minister refused to acknowledge the appointments.’
‘Now, we have learnt that the officiating VCs of three universities – Jadavpur University’s Amitabha Dutta, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology’s Indranil Mukherjee and North Bengal University’s Sanchari Mukherjee – have been asked to step down immediately by the governor who had himself handpicked them. This points to the sorry state of affairs in the higher education sector,’ he said.
He attacked the West Bengal government harshly, saying that the inclusion of more than one state administrator on the VC search committees demonstrates the state’s intention to ‘politically control the entire process by keeping out representatives from universities.’
‘It seems the state has no faith in teachers, students, researchers and non-teaching staff, although no search panel can function without the presence of the university representatives,’ he said.
He claimed that the Raj Bhavan and Bikash Bhavan were ‘hell-bent on turning the education sector into a battlefield’ and showed no interest in fixing facilities or filling open teaching positions.
Subhoday Dasgupta, president of the WBCUTA, called the legislation a ‘black act’ that was ‘drafted in an arbitrary manner and intended to snatch the autonomy of the state universities.’
Post Your Comments