Amid its own ongoing search for a vice-chancellor (V-C), Panjab University (PU) has added another name to its long list of faculty members who have gone on to lead universities across the country.Only two of 20 recent appointees are women – Anupama Sharma and Nishtha Jaswal. (HT File)With the appointment of Anupama Sharma as V-C of Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, this week, 20 PU professors have become V-Cs in the last five years alone, taking the overall tally to nearly 50 in the university’s history.Speaking on PU’s proud contribution, a faculty member said, “Now we have more than 350 private universities, plus central universities, deemed universities, technical and medical education institutions. They are bringing more opportunities for our colleagues, and PU is one of the best nurseries to provide the required leadership.”Rajat Sandhir, professor, department of biochemistry, added, “The experience from a rich and diverse ecosystem from the top performing university is a choice that cannot be ignored.”45% from science departmentsScientists dominate the list of recent appointments. At least nine of the 20 professors who became V-Cs come from pure or applied science departments such as physics, chemistry, botany, mathematics, chemical engineering and Biotechnology. The chemistry department alone produced two V-Cs – SK Mehta and Parvinder Singh. Others from the sciences include Tankeshwar Kumar from physics, RK Kohli from botany, SK Tomar from mathematics and RC Sobti from biotechnology.The law faculty forms the second-largest cluster, with at least four professors – PS Jaswal, Nishtha Jaswal, Devinder Singh and DN Jauhar – going on to head law universities across Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab. Management and commerce have contributed two – Sanjay Kaushik of the University Business School and Karamjeet Singh from Commerce.“This has been an old tradition in the university,” said Prof KC Pathak, a former V-C of PU. “Since PU appoints its faculty solely on merit basis, they go on to reach the top of their careers as academics and are the chosen ones” he said. He added that he has also seen cases where some faculty members, when offered vice-chancellorships at universities across the country, had declined, preferring to continue their lives as academics rather than administrators.Only 2 womenOnly two of 20 recent appointees are women – Anupama Sharma and Nishtha Jaswal. In a university that appointed its first woman V-C in 2023, over seven decades after its inception, the gender skew in its VC exports is perhaps unsurprising, but striking nonetheless.There is also a pattern in how many of these professors arrived at the top job. Many did not go directly from classroom to chancellery, they passed through PU’s senior administrative posts first. Parvinder Singh was Controller of Examinations, SK Tomar was Dean of University Instruction; Sanjeev Sharma headed the internal quality assurance cell. PU’s own administrative machinery, it appears, has functioned as a finishing school of sorts, the last stop before the corner office at another university.Ironically, when PU first broke away from the university in Lahore, Pakistan, post Partition, it did not have a V-C, let alone infrastructure. Its administrative office was set up in Solan, with teaching departments scattered across Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Delhi and Amritsar. Justice Teja Singh served as its first V-C. It was only in 1957, under V-C AC Joshi, that the university found its permanent footing in Chandigarh, on a red sandstone campus designed under Le Corbusier’s guidance.Former vice-chancellor Arun Grover pointed to a structural reason for the acceleration in recent years. “The career advancement scheme gave faculty members the opportunity to become professors, earlier that wasn’t the case,” he said. “Hence they have only climbed their career ladders and elevated themselves to be chosen as administrators.”Not everyone attributes the trend purely to academic merit. Faculty members at the university, speaking anonymously, say that in recent years, political connections have played a partial role in such appointments, which is also a broader pattern seen in V-C appointees across the Indian universities.PU keeps it in the familyIn its own history, PU has largely kept the top job in the family. With the exception of former V-C Raj Kumar, who came from Banaras Hindu University, Uttar Pradesh, in 2018, every V-C of PU has been homegrown-faculty and even alumni who spent years, often decades, within its own departments before ascending to the chair.The current search for the post of V-C appears to be no different. Among those who have thrown their hat in the ring are Yojna Rawat, Rajat Sandhir and Anju Suri, among others from within the campus. Renu Cheema Vig, the university’s first woman V-C, has been given an extension until July 2026 as the search runs its course. A three member search-cum-selection committee has since been constituted, with over 100 applications received by the deadline.