Top post empty, no general body meeting since 2017: SAARC run South Asian University struggles to function smoothly

No governing body meeting has taken place at SAU since 2017 and the university has also failed to meet its deadline to shift to its new campus at Maidan Garhi on June 1.

New Delhi:The SAARC established South Asian University (SAU) has been functioning without a president, its topmost post, for more than two years now. Talking to ETV Bharat, a senior official at the SAU, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that they are looking forward to appoint a regular president and will also hold a general body meeting. "Also, we are shifting to the new campus in the next two months," the official said.

No governing body meeting has taken place at SAU since 2017 and the university has also failed to meet its deadline to shift to its new campus at Maidan Garhi on June 1. Asked about the resignation by the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Chairperson of the Sociology last month, the official clarified that it was "not due to discontent" as reported in the media but rather a "routine" affair. "Recently, all the non-teaching staff was promoted and for faculty members it is a routine thing. People are promoted here on regular basis," he added.

"They resigned from the deanship and the chairmanship but they didn't resign as faculty members and continue to teach here," said the official. "We communicate through SAARC Secretaries and the capital funding of the Permanent Campus construction and all the major assets are funded by India. We have a CAG audit every year. On these things we are in touch with Ministry of External Affairs and the MEA has been extremely cooperative," the official added.

With the last SAARC summit happening in 2016, the official said that it was one of the reasons why the general body meeting could not take place. "It is not under the control of the university. You need concurrence from all the member states and the last SAARC summit happened in 2016 and that impacted us as well," the official said.

"We still continue to have online classes. We are dealing with countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan and we couldn't have the online classes because of pandemic. Few days back entrance test was conducted by Monday or by Tuesday, the results will be out," the official said.