Times ImpactJaipur: Days after TOI highlighted concerns over professors from unrelated disciplines heading departments at Rajasthan University, vice-chancellor Bhagwati Prasad Saraswat reviewed university rules and appointed faculty members from the respective departments as HoDs in four departments.TOI’s Oct 18 report, “Cross-disciplinary HoDs at RU raise concerns over efficiency”, had flagged questions over academic supervision and administrative functioning in departments headed by faculty from other subjects.
Rajasthan University VC Prof Bhagwati Prasad Saraswat took charge at RU in Jaipur, Rajasthan on 26 September 2026
On Oct 22, Mukesh Kumar was appointed HoD of Urdu and Persian, Asha Saxena of Geology and Santosh Gupta of Library and Information Science. Neha Arora had earlier been appointed HoD of Statistics. All four are assistant professors.With these appointments, all cross-disciplinary HoDs have been replaced, except in the Physical Education department.In Physical Education, faculty members are designated as “assistant directors” rather than “assistant professors”. University rules allow assistant professors to be appointed HoDs but do not mention assistant directors, creating a technical hurdle in naming a new head.“The two designations are equivalent in terms of status and salary,” a faculty member said.Vice-chancellor Saraswat said the university had acted to appoint faculty members with a rightful claim to the posts.“We have appointed those who have a rightful claim to the HoD posts. I don’t know why this was not done for nearly 40 years. We will soon address the issue in the Physical Education department too,” he said.Earlier, a Sanskrit professor headed Urdu, a mathematics professor headed Geology and a history professor headed the Library Science department.Asha Saxena, the new HoD of Geology, welcomed the move. She said faculty members from other disciplines might not fully understand a department’s problems and academic requirements. Appointing someone from within the department would help its development, she said.Rajasthan University Teachers’ Association (RUTA) president Naveen Sharma said the decision was encouraging and would help accelerate research and academic development in the departments concerned.
