No panel set up to select next VC: Nalanda University

Nalanda University in Bihar clarified on Wednesday that its governing board had not set up a committee to select suitable candidates for the post of the next vice chancellor.

"It is incorrect, as reported in a section of media, that the governing board in its meeting on January 30 decided to set up a search committee to select suitable candidates for the next vice chancellor," university chancellor George Yeo said in a press release here.

"The governing board left open the possibility of re-appointing the existing vice chancellor for a second term. The five-member appointment committee, which I chair, will deliberate whether the vice chancellor should be re-appointed or a search for a new vice chancellor be made. The board will then put up a formal recommendation to the visitor for his approval," Yeo said.

Vice chancellor Gopa Sabharwal's term ended in November 2015 and she got an extension as per varsity guidelines.

Located in the Buddhist pilgrim town of Rajgir in Nalanda district, the university began its first academic session in September 2014 on a makeshift campus.

Yeo, a former foreign minister of Singapore, replaced Nobel laureate Amartya Sen as the chancellor last year.