Professor S Gowri of Anna University appointed new VC of Madras University – Times of India

Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Thursday appointed S Gowri, a professor of Anna University, as the new vice-chancellor of Madras University. He will be the 45th vice-chancellor of the 163-year-old university and will hold the post for three years.
Gowri, a post-doctoral fellow of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, has a teaching experience of 37 years and is presently director of The Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMRC), an inter-university centre of UGC at the Anna University. He was also an honorary professor in the department of manufacturing engineering, Anna University, and was visiting professor at NTU and other universities. “Madras University can be brought to the level of Anna University with the cooperation of the faculty members and administrators. I hope both the state government and the central government will support the university,” Gowri told TOI.
New VC brings to table rich experience as prof, administrator
S Gowri, appointed the 45th vice-chancellor of University of Madras, was one of three candidates shortlisted by a search panel headed by Jawaharlal Nehru University vicechancellor M Jagadesh Kumar.
The committee, which began its search in June after delays due to Covid-19, initially shortlisted12 candidates from a pool of 177 applicants and narrowed down to the final three — S Gowri, S Ganesan and Usha Natesan all from Anna University. The three had an interview with the governor on Thursday morning, after which Gowri was appointed.
Apart from his teaching experience, Gowri is familiar with university administration too, having functioned as the registrar of Anna University of Technology (before 2012).
University of Madras is under severe financial crisis and around 60% faculty positions are vacant. The VC has an immediatet ask on hand as the university lacks funds to pay faculty salary and pension for September. It also cannot afford terminal benefits of retiring staff.
But the VC was confident of managing the crisis. He was also confident of bringing more funds from the funding agencies like UGC.
“I have a plan to set up a digital university and education technology centre. I also want to tie-up with software companies and service sectors like banking to launch startups in our campuses,” he added.
The vice-chancellor must acton delayin conducting thefinal year exams since it stalls PG admissions, said a professor. “The university should also challengetheUGCbringing territorial jurisdiction on distance education programmes,” the professor said.