MUMBAI: Governor K Sankaranarayanan in his capacity as the Chancellor of universities in the State, has appointed Search Committees for selection and appointment of Vice Chancellors of four universities in Maharashtra.   These universities are: Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS), Nashik, Rashtra Sant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, Nagpur, Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani and Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, Ahmednagar.   Dr Hari Gautam, renowned educationist, administrator and former Chairman of UGC will be the Chairman of the Search Committee appointed by the Governor for selection of Vice Chancellor of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences.   The Search Committee for Nagpur University will be headed by Justice A. P. Shah, Retired Chief Justice, High Court of Delhi.

PUNE: University of Pune (UoP) plans to use Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) in a big way in the coming years to eliminate any manipulations in university-related matters, said the Vice-Chancellor on Tuesday. “Complete automation will be the bottomline,” he reiterated.   The academic department is one section that does majority of its work online, especially those related to affiliations and approvals online using UoP's web portal as the interface. The varsity is also conducting online registration of voters for upcoming senate elections. The engineering faculty was the first to conduct exams of three subjects online.   Referring to these efforts, Vice-Chancellor R K Shevgaonkar said, “The examination section is the next section to be automated. Scanned degree certificates and Unique ID number project is our immediate priority.

PUNE: University of Pune (UoP) vice-chancellor R K Shevgaonkar has received the prestigious international award by Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) for UG classroom teaching.   EEE confers the award for excellence in teaching at UG level. Selection is done through feedback from ex-students and peers. Shevgaonkar is the first Indian professor to get the this award.   He was selected for his teaching at IIT, Mumbai.   Shevgaonkar developed text books and e-learning material using video in the field of ‘Electromagnetic waves and transmission lines’.     His video lectures, available on YouTube are popular among students.

MUMBAI: Reform in the University examination system will be the topmost priority for the new Vice-Chancellor of the 154-year-old University of Mumbai, Dr Rajan Welukar.   “Our first job is to reform the examination system by having a professional testing and assessment process,” Welukar said on the occasion of the University’s Foundation marked by tree plantation at the Kalina (Vidyanagari) campus last week.   Since the University is suffering from enormous delays in assessing examination papers and also announcing results, which affects students, “the reform in examination system is very crucial,” he said. “Once the professionally testing assessment is in place after training the teachers and non-teaching staff in all respects, the students will no longer suffer,” Welukar said.   The current form of testing and assessment system for the three lakh students spread over 600 colleges with 25 lakh papers to correct, has not given the desired results.

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan, in his capacity as the Chancellor of the universities in the State, today appointed Dr Rajan M Welukar, former Vice Chancellor of the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University as the new Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mumbai.   The appointment shall come into effect from the date Dr Welukar assumes the charge of the office of the Vice Chancellor and shall be for a term of five years, an official release said.   The Chancellor had a personal interaction with all the five candidates short-listed by the Search Committee headed by Dr Ashok Kolaskar today.