Exclusive | JNU VC Jagadesh Kumar, two others in fray to become next UGC chairman

The Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.

M. Jagadesh Kumar, the vice-chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and two others have been shortlisted for the post of chairman of the education regulator University Grants Commission (UGC), a politically sensitive position that will be crucial for effecting higher reforms.

There were at least seven candidates who had applied for the position and a search-cum-selection committee had shortlisted three names including that of Kumar.

The other two shortlisted candidates in the fray are Nitin R. Karmalkar, the vice-chancellor of the Pune University and Avinash Chandra Pandey, the director of Inter-University Accelerator Centre (IUAC), a body under the UGC.

The appointments committee of the cabinet headed by the Prime Minister will take a final call on who will head the UGC, the apex higher education regulator of the country.

The role of the next UGC chairman will be crucial for implementing the new National Education Policy (NEP), and reform of the higher education sector. The UGC chief’s role is also crucial for higher education administration, fund distribution to top educational institutions and maintaining a well-oiled relation among the regulator, the education providers and the government.

The position is seen as a politically sensitive one as education and its policies have a larger political-economy impact. The next UGC chairman will also play a key role in India’s aspiration to become a higher education destination for foreign students and also as a key facilitator to bring foreign institutions to India as envisaged in the NEP.

Kumar, who has a strong education credential, has been in news for controversies in JNU involving a section of the students, and also with a segment of the faculties. An alumnus of IIT Madras and University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, Kumar was a professor at IIT Delhi before joining JNU as its VC.

Pandey was the director of Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Allahabad before joining IUAC. He has previously served as the vice-chancellor of Bundelkhand University from 2012 to 2015. Besides his doctoral degree, he holds four masters’ degrees in physics, mathematics, management, and computer science and has research interest in nanotechnology, material science and atmospheric and ocean science.

Karmalkar is a well-known scientist in the field of igneous petrology and has research interest in areas including research mantle petrography and geochemistry, and economic geology.