Central Universities need reforms in their Governing Councils to make them realise their potential.

Central Universities in the need of reforms

• There are 55 central universities.
• These are endowed with prime land, extensive funding from the central government and there is a long line of students waiting to get in.
• However, they are in turmoil. In recent years, six vice-chancellors (VCs) of central universities have been sacked.
• Some of these institutions have seen their glory days, yet increasingly, the energy is going out of the system.
• However, not a single new private university has so far been able to create a true broad-based Vishwa Vidyalaya with the full range of humanities, social and natural sciences, and professional disciplines.
• Therefore, to save academia in India, central universities must be saved.

Organizational structure

• Each of the 55 central universities is governed by a separate Act. but the broad structure is as follows.
• The Visitor of the university is the President of India.
• On his behalf, the Ministry of Education recommends an eminent citizen as the chancellor, whose role is mostly ceremonial.
• The Ministry also constitutes a search committee for the post of VC, which comes up with a list of 3 candidates.
• From this list, the government picks a VC.
• Separately, and through a different process, the governing council (GC) is chosen.
• The governing council (GC) of the university usually have nominees from various stakeholders, including the government, faculty, students, and citizens.
• The university’s work is carried out by the executive council chaired by the VC, who also appoints the registrar.
• A separate finance committee is constituted, headed by a chief finance officer, who is often a civil servant on secondment to the university.
• This arrangement is designed to maintain financial checks and balances.

Issues with the governance

• The GC has no say in the selection of the VC.
• The GC typically meets only once a year and its size is usually very large.[Delhi University has 475 members]
• In theory, the VC presents and gets approval for the annual plan of the university from the GC.
• In practice, after much grandstanding on both sides, the plan is rubberstamped.
• After that, throughout the year, there is the minimal direction or monitoring from the GC, which may or may not meet again.
• There are typically no quarterly updates, and there is little oversight.
• Under the circumstances, the high number of failures should not come as a surprise, since effectively, there is minimal governance.

Comparing with provisions in IIM Bill

• The new IIM Bill very sensibly limits the GC to at most 19 members.
• They are expected to be eminent citizens, with broad social representation and an emphasis on alumni.
• This GC chooses the director, provides overall strategic direction, raises resources, and continuously monitors his or her performance.
• Within the guidelines provided by the GC, the director has full autonomy but also full accountability.

Way forward

• The governing councils of all central universities, IITs, and all other central institutions, need to be restructured by an Act of Parliament.
• The most eminent alumni of these institutions must be brought on their boards.
• The dynamism and exposure that these alumni bring to the table will promptly lead to world-class innovations.

Conclusion

To allow central universities, the IITs and other public institutions to truly blossom, we need to reform their Governance. There is no time to waste.

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