 SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

We have stressed that the constitution of a university should be formulated in sufficiently general terms so as to permit innovation and experimentation. The organisational pattern should be so designed as to serve the true objectives of university education'. Stereotyped written constitutions with too many safeguards would tend to become rigid and cumbersome and may even interfere with the proper growth and progress of the institution. We are also aware of the fact that the success of any university depends not upon the Act, Statutes, Ordinances and Regulations but on the personnel and the sense of responsibility and discipline that they bring in the discharge of their high and onerous duties as academicians.

We shall now summarise our main recommendations to which we have been led by our study of the problem:

1. The importance of written constitutions is less than the conventions that are needed for the right development of a university. For building such conventions, two basic principles should be accepted, viz. (i) autonomy of universities from external control and (ii) internally democratic administration and effective participation of the academic community in the formation and implementation of the university policy and programmes.

2. The President of India in the case of Central Universities and the Governor of the State concerned in the case of State Universities should be the Visitor of the universities. He should not be included in the list of officers of the university but should have an independent position with well-defined powers.

3. There should be a Chancellor elected by the Court. His should be an office of honour.

4. The committee is unable to recommend any one pattern as the most suitable one for all the universities in India for the appointment of a Vice-Chancellor. The committee, however, indicates preference for the following two modes, namely,(i) that the Vice- Chancellor should be nominated by the Visitor/ Government in the early stages; and (ii) that he should ordinarily be elected by the Court from among three persons recommended by a majority of the members of the Executive Council. Whatever be the mode the aim should be to secure the best person available. The Vice- Chancellor should be a distinguished educationist or scholar with administrative experience.

5. (a) The Vice-Chancellor should have a salary commensurate with his position and responsibility.

(b) The term of office of a Vice-Chancellor should be five years; he should not normally be appointed for more than two terms in the same university, subject to any retiring age that may be fixed.

6. To relieve the Vice-Chancellor of some of his duties, there should be a Pro-Vice-Chancellor or Rector chosen by the Vice-Chancellor.

7. Except in special circumstances, the Registrar should be a permanent officer of the university.

8. The committee is not in favour of honorary or paid Treasurers independently elected by the Court. The Treasurer/Finance Officer should be a whole-time salaried officer of the university appointed by the Executive Council specially charged with the responsibility of looking after the finances of the university. Similarly, the Finance Committee also should not be independently constituted but be substantially a Sub-Committee of the Executive Council.

9. Universities with large building programmes should have an efficient and versatile engineer of their own.

10. The Court should be the policy-making body of the university with a lay element and should not be concerned with the details of academic matters or the day-to-day administration of the university. It should consist of not more than 100 members, of whom approximately 50 per cent should be external ones. The Court may consist of ex-officio members, representatives of Alumni, donors, learned professions and industry and nominees of the Executive Council, the Visitor and the Court.

11. The Executive Council should consist of 15 to 20 members with approximately equal number of internal and external members.

12. The Academic Council should be the sole authority for determining the courses of study and standards. Their decisions should not need approval by any other authority in the university.

13. There should be sound financial rules but used so as not to delay or obstruct progress. There should be external audit and the audit reports should be placed before the Court and also communicated to Governments but it is not desirable to place them before Parliament/State Legislatures and their Public Accounts Committees.

14. (a) As the bulk of our students are in the affiliated colleges, due attention should be devoted to such colleges. The conditions for granting affiliation should be prescribed and enforced by universities notwithstanding pressure of numbers. The increasing demands for admission should not be met by expanding the size of existing colleges but by other measures such as evening and correspondence courses and other types of education besides arts and science courses.

(b) The gap between the condition of service of teachers in the affiliated colleges and university departments should be reduced. Teachers with similar qualifications, whether in colleges or university departments should have similar conditions of service including salary scales.

(d) There should be provision to enable colleges to try out new methods and courses.

15. (a) In some States, University Grants Commission/Committee have been established. If these are to make a useful and effective contribution to higher education the entire question would need careful consideration by the competent authorities, perhaps in consultation with the University Grants Commission.

(b) The power of appointing teachers and other employees and disciplinary control over them should vest in the university and not transferred to the Public Service Commission or other external body. Teaching appointments should be made by the Executive Council only on the recommendation of Selection Committees consisting of the Vice-Chancellor, the Heads of Departments concerned and a certain number of experts. The number of experts may vary according to the class of teachers to be appointed.

16. Every university should have a Dean of Students and devote special attention to students' welfare. An attempt should be made to secure the cooperation of senior students in the management of social and other aspects of life in the university. Student-Government is one of the forms of training that should not be ignored in a university.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The committee would like to place on record its deep appreciation of the services of its Secretary, Shri T.S. Bhatia, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Education.

We would like to express our thanks to Shri R.K. Chhabra, Deputy Secretary, University Grants Commission, for the valuable assistance he rendered to the committee in its work.

Sd/- D.S. KOTHARI Chairman

Sd/-* S.R. DAS

Sd/- S. GOVINDARAJULU

Sd/- PREM KIRPAL

Sd/- SAMUEL MATHAI

**M.N. SRINIVAS

Sd/- T.S. BHATIA Secretary

*Subject to the note of dissent appendid to the report. **Professor Srinivas was not able to sign the report being out of India.