Nalanda University: Can faculty recruitment be pattern of Gopa’s appointment?

By Our Special Correspondent

(BiharTimes): The recruitment of teachers for the Nalanda University will begin after the Governing Board meeting, which is being held at Rajgir on Monday.
Vice Chancellor Gopa Sabharwal had informed the media about this in January during her visit to ruins of Nalanda with former World Bank Chief Economist, Joseph Stiglitz.

However, sources ask will the recruitment of faculty follow the pattern of Gopa Sabharwal’s appointment as Vice Chancellor? Bihar Times was the first to reveal how Gopa Sabharwal was made the Vice Chancellor without a proper selection process. Subsequently she got her friend Dr Anjana Sharma become the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) on a fabulous salary.

These exposures had built up pressure on the University since then. Thus it is unlikely that recruitment of teachers could be done that surreptitiously and arbitrarily.

But sources question the intention of the University in this regard and felt that it is still mala fide as before.

There is no procedure for recruitment of faculty in the Nalanda University Statutes, 2012.

It is inexcusable that the University failed to formulate any procedure for recruitment of faculty although it spent 18 months instead of six in drafting the statutes. The loopholes seem to be deliberate. This would give Governing Board free hand in filling up the posts with its favourite candidates.

Under Section 3 (1) the Statutes clearly states that it would not be necessary to constitute any selection committee for appointment to the post of Professor a person of high academic distinction. Such exemption is no doubt admissible under exceptional case. But why are the Statutes silent on formation of selection committees under regular circumstances?

The Central Universities Act, 2009 in its Second Schedule i.e. Statutes of the University (vide Clause 18-P 27) clearly defines the composition of selection committee. The UGC regulations 2010, which apply to every University formed under a Central Act, Provincial Act or State Act also describes the formation of selection committee.

The Nalanda University being a University established under a Central Act cannot overlook this obligation.

Sources also said the present Governing Board seems hell bent upon compounding its sins.