After the Gujarat Assembly, the Common Universities Act gets the governor's nod
With this, 11 Acts governing as many universities stand repealed
No senate-syndicates from now!
Updated: Sep 28th, 2023
Updated on Sept 28, 12.11 p.m.
The governor of Gujarat, Acharya Devvrat, granted permission for the Common Universities Act, after which it can be considered duly enacted and common statutes and ordinances will be delivered to all the universities.
As the Act gets rid of student and general senates and syndicate elections, the student union Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) will protest against it.
In a meeting, ABVP presented two proposals, demanding the continuation of student and other unions in the universities and the permanent recruitment of applicants who passed the TET-TAT (teacher eligibility test and teacher aptitude test) exams.
The monsoon session has seen a number of bills passed in the Gujarat Assembly.
The much-debated Gujarat Public University Bill 2023 has been passed in the Assembly today.
With a high tide of sweeping changes, this bill will affect all 11 public universities in the state and allegedly tighten its grip on bringing them under the same law.
According to the state government, the bill aims to achieve “smooth governance of universities, better coordination, cooperation, and proper utilisation of higher education facilities of universities, sound finance control, better quality higher education, and measures to create excellent quality standards in the face of global competition.”
While family welfare minister Rushikesh Patel reportedly called the Bill a “milestone,” the opposition, Congress, said it infringes on the autonomy of the universities and is detrimental to academic freedom.
What are the changes after the bill?
- The universities will do away with student politics and discontinue the senate and syndicate bodies. The Bill replaced student bodies with a ‘board of management’ which will be the principal executive and final decision-making and policy-making authority of a university and responsible for administering all its affairs.
- Out of the 11 universities, 10 will have the governor of the state as their chancellor.
- The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (MSU) in Vadodara will be an exception, whose chancellor will continue to be from the royal family.
- The term of chancellor will be five years instead of three.
- The vice chancellor will not be eligible for reappointment in the same university but can hold the position in a different university.
Earlier, the universities and educators had protested against the bill. However, the controversial bill was cleared today in the assembly, marking a significant change in the way universities will be administered in the state.
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