College Street: Presidency University may have an interim vice-chancellor after the tenure of the current head, Anuradha Lohia, expires on May 1 as the process of appointing the next VC is unlikely to be over by then.

"Till the next VC is selected, Anuradha Lohia can be asked to continue in an interim capacity," an official in the higher education department said.

The committee set up to recommend three names for the post of Presidency vice-chancellor issued an advertisement last week seeking nominations/applications from prospective candidates.

"It is unlikely the shortlisting of names, the final selection and the appointment will be over by May 1," the official said.

The search panel consists of former UGC chairman Ved Prakash (the governors's nominee), Rabindra Bharati University vice-chancellor Sabyasachi Basu Raychaudhuri (the state government's nominee) and Nirmal Ganguly, a former director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (the university's nominee).

The first meeting of the committee was held on April 7. The panel has not met since.

"All three members have to attend the meeting. At the next meeting, the members will go through the applications/nominations and may draw up a shortlist, which will be forwarded to the governor. The committee may also decide to interview the candidates before drawing up the panel, in which case the process may drag," another official of the department said.

Appointing an interim vice-chancellor pending the completion of the search is nothing new. In Calcutta University, an interim VC had been at the helm for several months in 2012 as the search process did not end before the tenure of Suranjan Das expired on April 30, 2012.

Das himself had functioned as interim head till he was reappointed for a second term in July 2012.

The advertisement posted on the Presidency website www.presiuniv.ac.in on April 9 says: "The last date for submission of nomination/application is 30th April, 2018. In addition, hard copies (in triplicate) must reach the office of the Registrar, Presidency University latest by 5pm on 4th May 2018."