PATNA, May 29 -- In a sudden development, the Bihar Governor's Secretariat has cancelled the advertisements inviting applications for the appointment of vice-chancellors in four state universities. The notifications in this regard have been issued. The decision to cancel the advertisements issued in May June and December, 2025 was taken after the meeting of chief minister Samrat Choudhary with Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Syed Ata Hasnain, who is also the chancellor of state universities, on May 25 at the Lok Bhawan to discuss higher education issues. A senior official of the Lok Bhawan said that while the reasons behind the cancellation was not known, as it was between the CM and Governor, the advertisements would be issued afresh with fresh guidelines for wider publicity to give opportunities to more capable candidates who could pull the universities out of the rut. What is significant about the cancellation is that the interaction for all universities, except Magadh University, had been completed and only the consultation between the CM and Governor on the panel of names submitted by the respective search committees, in keeping with the 2013 Supreme Court guidelines, was due. The advertisements for TM Bhagalpur University, Veer Kunwar Singh University, Magadh University and Mazharul Haq Arabic and Persian University had been issued during the previous Nitish government and the tenure of Hasnain's predecessor Arif Mohammad Khan. However, applications invited on May 20 last for LN Mithila University (Darbhanga), Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga, Sanskrit University, BN Mandal University (Madhepura), BBA Bihar University (Muzaffarpur), JP University (Chapra) and Aryabhatt Knowledge University (Patna) for vacancies arising in January remain unaffected. "Now fresh search committees will be formed for the four universities under interim arrangement at present. The Governor has also written to the Bihar government to ensure separate government nominee for each university, unlike the past when the same person remained the government nominee for all the universities," the official said. After the CM-Governor meeting, there were speculations that the appointment in three of the four universities would be announced, but it turned out to be a decision to cancel all previous advertisements during the past regime. "The issues of rampant corruption, poor functioning of the state universities, lukewarm approach to reforms, systemic issues like delayed promotions and fiscal mismanagement, delayed sessions and missing ambiance may have contributed to the decision to go in for fresh move to appoint VCs who could deliver," said the official. The appointment of VCs in the state universities is crucial for capable leadership to develop system, as the Governor has been quite particular about the much-needed and belated improvement in the higher education in a time-bound manner with a string of recent initiatives, which need to be translated into reality. According to officials familiar with the matter, the Governor has also taken serious the issue of unending controversies on the ongoing recruitment of assistant professors by the Bihar State University Service Commission (BSUSC), which was also discussed with the CM, and some concrete action would be evident in the days to come. Even on Tuesday, the BSUSC notified cancellation of its recommendation for an EWS category candidate Shashi Bhushan Pandey following the Patna High Court order on a petition filed by Rabindra Kumar, who had been earlier rejected, challenging manipulation of experience certificate. The commission itself admitted in its notification that Pandey got through despite less aggregate marks, without elaborating how it could happen, and withdrew its recommendations to accommodate Rabindra Kumar with a revised result in the EWS category. "The result could be revised as one of the petitioners could approach the court for justice and he proved right. Many others might not have approached the court, but such instances point to serious irregularities, as the BSUSC failed to discharge its basic duty of screening of documents even post selection. Many genuine candidates may have been left out at the beginning itself due to manipulated documents. All these facts are under Governor's consideration," said a Raj Bhawan official....