New Delhi: Nearly 13% of India’s most prestigious centrally-funded higher educational institutions, including IITs, IIMs, and Central Universities, are currently operating without permanent heads. This leadership void, flagged by recent data from the Ministry of Education, raises serious concerns about institutional governance, strategic direction, and academic stability.
According to a report by the Indian Express, two IITs( IIT Kharagpur and IIT Hyderabad), eight CUs (Central Universities), three IIMs, three NITs and atleast 1 IISER are running without any permanent leadership. In the absence of permanent appointments, interim arrangements have been made. These often create burden on officials who are already serving at other institutions.
In the case of NITs, their Directors temporarily double up as Chairpersons. For IIITs, duties are delegated to Chairpersons of other centrally-funded technical institutions or to government officials, with extensions granted to existing heads. The absence of institutional heads slows down administrative and academic reforms.
The Ministry of Education will expedite appointments and mandated monthly progress reports from institutions. However, experts argue that bureaucratic red tape, a narrow pool of eligible candidates, and complex selection procedureswill continue to delay the process.
“If premier institutions are leaderless, it signals a deeper governance malaise,” said a senior academic on condition of anonymity. “This affects morale and slows down innovation.”
At least eight out of these 17 institutions have been led by interim heads for more than a year, including IIM Calcutta, IIM Shillong, NIT Srinagar, NIT Andhra Pradesh, IISER Thiruvananthapuram, IGNOU, Sikkim University, and Rajiv Gandhi University in Arunachal Pradesh.
