Rajul Gajjar takes charge as GTU’s first woman vice-chancellor, aims for transformative leadership – Times of India

AHMEDABAD: On Thursday, the state government appointed Rajul Gajjar as the Vice-Chancellor of Gujarat Technological University (GTU). Gajjar will be the first woman VC of GTU, the largest university in the state in terms of the number of affiliated institutions and students. Gajjar’s appointment comes months after Neerja Gupta‘s appointment as the new Vice-Chancellor of Gujarat University in June, the first woman Vice-Chancellor of GU, which was established in 1949.

Gajjar’s immediate previous assignment was as the Principal of LD College of Engineering and Technology, Ahmedabad. Having a doctorate on the topic of structural disasters from MS University Vadodara, she has earlier served as the officiating VC of GTU in 2016 for seven months, as additional commissioner in the state education department in 2017, and as the VC of the Indian Institute of Teacher Education (IITE) in 2018. She was appointed as the first dean of GTU and subsequently served as the director also. Gajjar has published 66 national and international research papers, authored four books, and holds three patents in her name.
Her appointment comes six months after GTU’s previous VC, Naveen Sheth’s term expired on December 30, 2022. Sources said that there was tough competition between two professors with political affiliation for the post of GTU’s VC. Both teachers who were in the race for this position had affiliations with RSS and BJP. During the last meeting of the search committee held on Friday, there was a discussion on these two teachers, but finally, the third candidate, Gajjar’s name, was finalized.

Gajjar will be retiring as a professor four months after she completes 62 years of age. However, she will continue serving the three-year term as the VC because the retirement age for the VC is 65 years.