The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Vice-Chancellor Mr. Mamidala Jagadish Kumar was appointed as the new chairperson of the University Grants Commission (UGC) on 04-02-2022, Friday. The Ministry of Education issued the government order and the appointment has been made for a period of five years or until he turns 65, whichever is earlier.
Mr. Kumar’s five-years term as JNU VC had ended in January last year, but he was asked to stay on till his successor is picked. The appointment of Mr. Kumar comes at a time when the government has been struggling to launch the Higher Education Commission of India, envisaged in the National Education Policy 2020. The Higher Education Commission is expected to subsume existing regulatory bodies such as the UGC and the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
Mr. Kumar, is an alumnus of IIT Madras’s electrical engineering department, presided over a tumultuous tenure as JNU VC from January 2016. Mr. Kumar also served as the professor in IIT-Delhi’s Department of Electrical Engineering.