PU high level committee of experts submits final report

Chandigarh: The High Level Committee of experts under the Chairmanship of Prof. R.P. Tiwari, Chairman, Vice Chancellor, Central Univ. of Punjab, Bathinda, which was constituted by Vice President of India Sh M. Venkaiah Naidu and Chancellor, Panjab University, Chandigarh, has submitted its final report.  The Committee after detailed deliberations and after taking into account the views of the stakeholders, the recommendations of other Committees on governance reforms made hitherto and the governing structure of other prominent institutions in the country has firmed up its final recommendations. The highlights of the recommendations include: -
1.    The governing bodies, i.e., Senate and Syndicate have been retained. The composition of proposed Senate is combination of ex-officio, elected and nominated members. The Committee recommended downsizing of these bodies for enhanced efficiency. The existing 93-member body of Senate has been proposed to be of 47 members. Similarly, the number of members of Syndicate has been recommended to be 13, as against the existing number of 18.
2.    Prominence to the academicians from University as well as from the affiliated colleges in the governance of the University.
3.    Place for eminent alumnus in the governance of Panjab University instead of Registered Graduates.
4.    Changes in composition of Faculties have also been recommended that include; i) to do away with the bifurcation of Faculties as Major or Minor ii) presently PU regulation prescribes 11 Faculties, after rationalization, the Committee recommended 10 Faculties iii) in place of added/co-opted members, nominated members from amongst the academia have been recommended.
5.    Present system of appointment of Deans of Faculties by election has been recommended to be replaced with appointment from amongst the senior Professors of the University on seniority basis by rotation.
6.    In order to have better coordination between colleges and PU administration and also to facilitate the efficient service delivery of PU to students, re-alignment of territorial jurisdiction of PU is also recommended so that colleges situated in close proximity of PU (i.e. Mohali, Roopnagar, etc.) may be affiliated to it and colleges situated at distant places (as far as 200 to 250 kms) from PU be affiliated to other Universities of the State. In nutshell the overall governance structure has been proposed to remove complexities of the system and bring efficiency, keeping in view the contemporary needs of higher education system of the country.
The other members of the Committee includes Prof. P.K. Raina, Director, IIT, Ropar Member, Prof. Nagarajan Ramamoorthy, Member Director, IIM, Amritsar, Prof. K. N. Pathak, former Vice Chancellor, Member Panjab University, Chandigarh, Prof. Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor Member Panjab University, Chandigarh, Prof. V.S. Chauhan, Chairman, Executive Member Committee, NAAC – Nominee of Chairman, UGC, Dr. Jaspal Singh Sandhu, Vice Chancellor Member Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar – Nominee of the Chief Minister of Punjab, Shri Paramjit Singh, DPI (Colleges), Government Member of Punjab, Shri Rubinderjit Singh Brar, Director (Higher Member Education), Chandigarh Administration, Shri Satya Pal Jain, Additional Solicitor General Member of India – Nominee of the Chancellor, Panjab University, Chandigarh and CA Vikram Nayyar, Registrar, Panjab University,  as Member Secretary, Chandigarh.