Tariq Mansoor has been chosen as Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) vice-chancellor by President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday. The 60-year-old Mansoor, principal of AMU’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, will succeed Lt Gen (retd) Zameeruddin Shah, who will retire on May 17.
Mansoor has been associated with the university for 35 years now. “I do not know anything about this as I have not received an official communication or order from the government yet,” Mansoor told The Indian Express.
Reportedly, Mansoor was chosen from a list of three names that the university’s court had suggested to the Union Human Resource Development ministry. The other two nominees were Abu Saleh Sharif, executive director and chief scholar, US-India Policy Institute, Washington, and Shahid Jameel, CEO, Welcome Trust and DBT India Alliance.
A division within the university has stressed that Sharif and Jameel had never served as professors in an educational institution as directed by the University Grants Commission (UGC). The concern was taken to the Supreme Court, but it refused to interfere saying all three candidates fulfilled academic guidelines.
