The tenure of JNU vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar, whose style of functioning has repeatedly set up clashes with teachers and students, ends on January 26 but the process of appointing his successor is set to be delayed. University officials said it now seemed likely that Kumar would continue in his post a while longer till a new vice-chancellor was appointed. The President, who is the Visitor of the university, had appointed a three-member search panel for a new vice-chancellor but it has not met even once. Kumar is seen as ideologically close to the ruling dispensation. The appointments of the heads of many central educational institutions have been in limbo in recent years, with officials suggesting the delays resulted from the government’s failure to find ideologically pliant candidates.