The Shipping Ministry has initiated the process to pick a new Vice-Chancellor for the ‘direction-less and head-less’ Indian Maritime University. It is seeking to put the institute, set up through an act of Parliament, in order.

The Chennai-based University is currently headed by a part-time Vice-Chancellor after the previous VC quit some 18 months ago. The IMU has six campuses located at Chennai, Mumbai, Kandla, Kochi, Kolkata and Visakhapatnam. Most are headed by a ‘director in-charge’.

List of probables

A three-member search committee, led by Gautam Chatterjee, a former Director-General of Shipping, is scrutinising eight candidates who have applied for the post after the government raised the age limit for applicants to 70 from 60.

The list includes five retired professors, one serving professor, the current in-charge vice-chancellor and an industry official with teaching and research experience.

For the first time, all the applicants were asked to make presentations and attend discussions with the search committee, a Shipping Ministry official said.

The IMU started functioning from November 14, 2008 after integrating seven maritime academic institutions: National Maritime Academy — Chennai, TS Chanakya — Mumbai, Lal Bahadur Shastri College of Advanced Maritime Studies & Research — Mumbai, Marine Engineering Research Institute — Mumbai, Marine Engineering Research Institute — Kolkata, Indian Institute of Port Management — Kolkata and National Ship Design & Research Centre — Visakhapatnam.

The IMU has seen five Vice-Chancellors in the last 10 years. Most did not complete their tenure after being en-tangled in corruption cases or other issues. “IMU lost its way in the absence of a stable administrator who could understand the pulse of the shipping industry, and this affected the growth momentum of the University,” an industry official said.

CEMS campuses

This could partly explain why the Shipping Ministry decided to set up a world-class Centre of Excellence in Maritime and Ship Building (CEMS) in partnership with Siemens and Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) for ₹766 crore under the flagship Sagarmala programme.

CEMS will have campuses at Vishakhapatnam and Mumbai to train 10,512 students per year. It aims to become a nodal centre in South Asia.

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