The new board will be headed by NU chancellor George Yeo while bureaucrat turned politician N K Singh will represent India on the board
Uncertainty looms over Nalanda University (NU) with President Pranab Mukherjee effecting a reshuffle in the varsity’s top administration by dissolving the Nalanda Mentors Group (NMG) or the governing board of the institution and directing for the constitution of a new one.
The new board will be headed by NU chancellor George Yeo while bureaucrat turned politician N K Singh will represent India on the board. Singh was also a member of the dissolved board. NU’s founding chancellor Amartya Sen has not found place in the new board ending his nine-year long association with the international institution. Sen was a part of NMG since 2007.
India has asked partner countries including Myanmar, Thailand and Laos to nominate their representatives to the board. Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, ICCR president Lokesh Chandra and McGill University professor Arvind Sharma have also been nominated to the board.
Meanwhile, November 24 will be the last working day for vice chancellor Gopa Sabharwal with Mukherjee also quashing re-extension of her term as an acting VC while a search committee looked for her replacement. Much controversy had followed her re-extension and varsity on Novermber 19 shared the chancellor’s letter with the media stating the move was “to ensure that there is no leadership vacuum in the university”.
According to sources, seniormost dean and professor Pankaj Mohan from NU’s School of Historical Studies is likely to take over as the interim VC while an advertisement inviting applications for the post has already been floated for the same.
The university officials said they were apprised of the development informally on Tuesday but no official communication had been circulated in this regard till Wednesday.
“We were told of the news without much elaboration and don’t know what changes are happening at the top level. The varsity’s infrastructure development had just taken wings and now we are in a fix about what’s next,” an NU official told DNA.
Similar sentiments were shared by some other faculty members, who hoped a clearer picture will emerge in the coming days.
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