A screening panel, constituted to look for new Vice Chancellor of Jammu University, on Tuesday wrapped up its two-day visit to the campus after holding interaction with various stakeholders.

The panel met the university faculty members, officials, non-teaching and non-gazetted employees, class representatives (CRs), department representatives (DRs) and cultural secretaries, to get the feedback from the campus before finalising their task.

The panel was headed by Prof DP Aggarwal, former chairman of the Union Public Service Commission. Other members were Prof Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain, Vice Chancellor of Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi, and Prof Vijay Gupta, Vice Chancellor of Sharda University, Noida.

On Monday, the panel had held an interaction with campus deans, heads of departments, rectors, directors of the offsite campuses, heads of centres and central facilities, all professors, associate professors and assistant professors of the each department, and officials of the university.

On Tuesday, the panel met office-bearers of Jammu University Teachers’ Association, JU officers’ association, JU non-teaching employees’ association and JU non-gazetted employees’ union, cultural secretaries, DRs and CRs.

Pertinently, the three-year tenure of the incumbent VC Prof RD Sharma had expired on April 12 following which the Chancellor asked him to continue till the appointment of the new VC.

As per the UGC criteria, the upper age limit for the applicants for the post was recently enhanced from the current 62 years to 65 years on the date of submission of applications.

According to university insiders, all stakeholders urged the screening panel to take the “merit, competence and experience” criteria into consideration for the appointment of the new VC.

“The stakeholders suggested that the university has reached a threshold position and it needed a person who could further take it to new heights. The new VC should have the ability to take quick policy decisions, though under the university statutes,” the insiders said.