UGC’s new draft rules on Vice-Chancellor appointments

UGC’s new draft rules on Vice-Chancellor appointments :

Several states have objected to provisions in The UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment and Promotion of Teachers and Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2025, that could give the Chancellor – who is typically the state Governor – a bigger role in appointing Vice Chancellors (VCs) of state universities.

Procedure of appointment of  VCs :

  Regulations notified by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in 2018 said that a search-cum-selection committee comprising eminent persons in higher education shall shortlist 3-5 candidates by public notification, nomination, a “talent search process”, or a combination of these processes.

The Chancellor – or Visitor in a central university – appoints the VC from among the recommended names.

Last year, Governor R N Ravi asked the government to recall the notifications to set up search committees for VCs of several state universities on the grounds that they did not include the nominee of the UGC chairman. The appointments remain pending.

New UGC regulations:

• The draft regulations say “the Chancellor/ Visitor shall constitute the Search-cum-Selection Committee comprising three experts.” The 2018 regulations did not specify who would constitute the committee.
• Unlike the 2018 regulations, the new regulations specify the composition of the committee: a member each nominated by the Visitor/ Chancellor, the UGC Chairman, and the apex body of the university (Senate/ Syndicate/ Executive Council). This gives nominees of the Centre the majority in the committee.
• Besides professors, individuals at senior levels in industry, public policy, public administration, or public sector undertakings, can also become VCs, says the draft.