No policy to appoint VCs at universities

The appointment of VC, pro-VC and treasurer at Bangladeshi universities largely depends on political influence and less on academic or administrative performance due to the lack of a specific policy.

Currently, there is no guideline in place that can determine who is eligible or disqualified to be the vice-chancellor (VC) of a university in the country, said educationists and experts.

They said this is in sharp contrast to the practice prevalent in the VC appointment process elsewhere across the globe. The VCs are appointed either by a search committee or through open advertisements in other countries.

But in Bangladesh, the VC is selected from a panel by Senate members or is handpicked by the president following the consent of the prime minister after the education ministry sends a list of potential candidates, they added.

Stressing on a specific guideline to avoid political manoeuvring, educationists said a VC should be appointed on the basis of the highest level of competence, morals, institutional commitment, integrity, and publications.

They said the posts of VC or pro-VC often end up with disqualified applicants, as there is no open competition or fair hiring practices and the internal candidates are extremely biased and politically involved with a certain group of administration or faculty.

This affects the quality of higher education as the VC stays loyal to the hiring officials rather than the university and its students, they added.

Islamic University (IU)’s former Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Md Harun-Ur- Rashid Askari told The Business Post, “I think a high power search committee can be formulated by the government led by education advisor, comprising a number of educationists to appoint VC.”

He urged the government to appoint VC at the public universities from the teachers of respective universities.”

“Persons with the highest level of education, competence, integrity and institutional commitment should be appointed as vice-chancellors,” he added.

According to UGC, currently, there are 109 private universities and 53 public universities across the country with at least 40 lakh students.

Insiders said the respective laws of four large public universities — Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Jahangirnagar universities —have provisions to appoint the VC.

As per the law, the VCs of the four universities would be appointed by the president after getting elected by the senate of the respective universities.  

But the rest of the country’s universities have no specific guidelines for the appointment of VC. The president appoints a VC following the consent of the prime minister from three potential candidates proposed by the Education Ministry.

However, the appointment of VCs in other countries including India, Sri Lanka, the USA and the UK is made through a more rigorous process.

As per the University Grants Commission of India, persons of the highest level of competence, integrity, morals and institutional commitment are to be appointed VCs.

The chancellor appoints the VC from a panel of names recommended by a search committee. A nominee of the chancellor is the chairperson of the committee which also includes a nominee of the chairman of the UGC and a nominee of the Syndicate/executive council/board of management of the university.

The members of the search committee must be persons of eminence in the sphere of higher education and must not be connected with the university in any manner.

As per UGC of Sri Lanka, the VC of a university is appointed by the country’s president for a term of three years, from a panel of three names recommended by the council of that university. But no person can be appointed vice-chancellor of the same university for more than two consecutive terms in Sri Lanka.

UGC sources said in Strategic Plan for Higher Education for 2006-2026, the commission recommended changing the existing system of appointing VCs as it left much ‘scope for political manoeuvring’. It also proposed that the chancellor could form a national search committee to recommend the appointment of VCs.

However, the government did not pay heed to the UGC recommendations choosing, instead, to appoint loyalists as VCs.

In recent years, there have been massive allegations of various irregularities including nepotism and corruption against the VCs of various public universities.

There are also allegations that relatively less qualified teachers are being appointed as VCs in universities due to party considerations or personal preferences.

In a parliament session on March 29 last, the opposition lawmakers alleged that VCs are appointed based on their political affiliations instead of academic and administrative excellences that hinder the smooth running of the universities.

UGC member Prof Dr Muhammed Alamgir said there is no specific policy for the appointment of VC, Pro-VC and treasurers in most universities and the process of appointing a VC is also not transparent in Bangladesh.

He said, “If they (VC) were appointed following a specific guideline, debates over such issues will reduce at the universities.”

Prof Alamgir also said the UGC is responsible for the overall management of higher education but UGC has no role in the process of VC appointment.