HRD Ministry informs one third of teachers posts vacant in central universities

The human resource development (HRD) ministry has informed that one-third of teachers’ posts are lying vacant in central universities. The HRD Ministry and University Grants Commission (UGC) have been monitoring universities to fill up posts, but the situation has not improved.

More than 53% of associate professors’ posts are not filled and most universities are relying on ad-hoc, contractual and guest faculty. There are some departments in which permanent positions have not been filled for the past 14-15 years.

A senior HRD official revealed that Central universities are adopting different methods to address faculty shortage to ensure studies are not affected. This includes hiring ad-hoc and guest faculty. The retirement age was also increased to 65 years in 2007 to solve the problem. A total of 2,922 ad-hoc and contract faculty have been employed by central universities to manage the staff crunch.

According to HRD minister Smriti Irani, the onus of filling up posts lies on central universities, which are autonomous bodies created under Acts of Parliament. The issue was also discussed in a conference of Vice Chancellors of central universities held in the month of February, 2016. The minister had told universities to look into the issue immediately and fill up the posts in a time-bound manner.

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