Thiruvananthapuram: In a curious development, the Vice-Chancellor of the Digital University, Dr Ciza Thomas, has not been invited to the International Higher Education Conclave being organised by the state government and Kerala Higher Education Council in Kochi on January 14 and 15, while SFI state president K Anusree, who is a member of the university’s syndicate, is among the invitees.

Incidentally, Thomas was one of the three main speakers at a convention of the vice-chancellors of universities in South India held in Tamil Nadu recently.

Thomas, who was earlier the Vice-Chancellor of the A P J Abdul Kalam Technological University (popularly known as Kerala Technological University – KTU), is yet to receive her pension benefits even after two years as she had taken up the post based on a directive of former Governor Arif Mohammed Khan.

Another strange aspect of the conclave is the absence of an invitation to the present Governor, who is the Chancellor of the universities in the state.

The Chief Minister will inaugurate the conference and delegates from various foreign universities will take part. Ironically, while the current vice-chancellors of the universities in Kerala have been included in unimportant sessions, former VCs have been invited to the major session. The former VCs include Dr Sabu Thomas, Dr Gopinath Raveendran, M V Narayanan, P G Sankaran and Saji Gopinath.

Programmes at the conclave include talks and presentations of case studies on topics such as reforms in the higher education sector, ensuring global competitiveness, the role of AI in the sector and sustainable integration.

Earlier, Minister for Higher Education R Bindu inaugurated an exhibition organised as part of the conclave. Students and faculty from various universities and colleges are displaying the findings of their studies and products they developed, in the 33 stalls at the exhibition.