Kothagudem: Faculty shortage, lack of facilities plague Dr Manmohan Singh Earth Sciences University

Dr Manmohan Singh Earth Sciences University in Kothagudem is facing faculty shortages and inadequate facilities. Despite the government’s recruitment plan for State universities, its vacancy list reportedly shows no posts for MSESU, which needs 128 faculty members.

Kothagudem: The enthusiasm shown by the Congress government in setting up Dr. Manmohan Singh Earth Sciences University (MSESU) in Kothagudem seems to be lacking in developing it, if the sad state of affairs at the university are any indication.

The MSESU, boasted to be first-of-its-kind State University dedicated to earth sciences in the country, is mired by serious shortage of faculty and facilities. It might be recalled that in a grand ceremony on December, 2025 here, Chief Minister, A Revanth Reddy inaugurated the university assertingh to develop it into a world-class institution.

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The statement remained ineffective as nothing moved forward in that direction as nearly two years passed since its transformation into a university, the expected level of infrastructure and administrative systems are yet to be put in place.

The university has no regular Vice-Chancellor, no regular Registrar and no faculty to teach newly introduced subjects like geology, geophysics, geochemistry, environmental sciences and others besides regular engineering subjects.

The Education Department Principal Secretary Dr. Yogita Rana acts as the Vice-Chancellor and she seldom visits the campus. Kakatiya University (KU) Registrar Prof. V Ramachandram acts as in-charge Registrar.

The university is relying on over a dozen faculty members as well as other staff recruited under KU’s jurisdiction and no fresh recruitment has taken place yet. The government recently issued the GO No 31, with guidelines for filling up around 500 posts in 13 universities in the State.

Nonetheless, the list shows zero vacancies in MSESU though in a recent report submitted to the government the university officials put the required faculty strength at 128 to teach around 1200 students, both of engineering and earth sciences disciplines. studying at the university.

The worrisome factor here is there is no faculty to teach earth sciences subjects.

When contacted the University College of Engineering Principal Dr. T Jaganmohan Raju informed that the college’s sanctioned faculty is 33 and of them 15 are on roll. And of them five are on deputation to KU reducing the regular faculty strength to 10.

The university is being run with 10 regular faculty and seven contract lecturers and care is being taken not to allow faculty shortage to affect academics. Guest lecturers from private colleges, geologists from SCCL and government departments are being engaged to teach engineering and earth sciences, he added.

 

21KM1: A view of Dr. Manmohan Singh Earth Sciences University in Kothagudem.

1KM2: A view of the entrance to Dr. Manmohan Singh Earth Sciences University (MSESU) in Kothagudem.