There is palpable excitement over the prospect of higher education being seriously reformed. The one proposal that has caught immediate attention is a move to depoliticise the appointment of vice-chancellors. There can be no quarrel with the desirability of this move. According to reports, there is a proposal to have a collegium headed by an eminent person to make appointments. Keeping politicians out of the process is one thing, but having a single body make all appointments is quite another. In fact, there is something of a misunderstanding about the current system. In its intent, even in the current system, the selection is made by eminent persons. But they are asked to submit panels, and often ministries have the last word. One simple thing to do would be to remove the role of the ministry; you would still get the eminent panel, but without the centralisation.

In some ways the logic of this proposal is very much at odds with what the Indian system needs: greater decentralisation rather than greater centralisation. To grasp this point one needs to put the VC’s role in a broader context.

We have to recognise that the one institution that is central to the working of universities and institutes is the Executive Council — the EC — or an equivalent board. It is these institutions that are the most politicised, even more than the VC’s office. The sources of politicisation are both external and internal; externally because of government nominations; internally because of the political links of teacher representatives. More than the VC, the quality and composition of these councils matter to the university. These need to be radically depoliticised.

... contd.