No professors on rolls in seven Telangana universities

Telangana’s higher education system faces a severe crisis as several universities have no professors and large-scale faculty vacancies. Delays in recruitment and policy issues have affected academic activity, with the government planning to begin hiring in the coming months.

Hyderabad: Seven universities and not even a single professor on the rolls. This is the situation of Telangana universities under the Congress government, reflecting a deep crisis in the State’s higher education system.

As per the statistics available with the Higher Education department, Kakatiya University, the second oldest and largest university in the State, has no professor to teach, as all 55 sanctioned professor positions are lying vacant.

---

The same is the fate of Mahatma Gandhi University, Satavahana University, Palamuru University, Suravaram Pratapa Reddy Telugu University, Dr BR Ambedkar Open University and Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (RGUKT) Basar.

The absence of professors, who have a key role in formulating the syllabus, guiding research, mentoring PhD scholars and attracting funding from agencies, has brought academic activity to a near standstill in these varsities.

Vacant positions are not just limited to the professor-level cadre. Eleven universities are also facing a shortage of faculty at the associate and assistant professor levels.

For instance, only 53 out of 514 sanctioned associate professor posts in Osmania University are on the rolls, leaving a staggering 461 vacant for the past several years. Similarly, 470 out of 601 sanctioned assistant professor positions are vacant.

The situation is worse in Kakatiya University, as only two out of 96 sanctioned associate professor posts are filled. Similarly, 183 out of 258 sanctioned assistant professor posts are lying vacant.

Overall, only 753 posts have teachers on the rolls as against the sanctioned strength of 2,878 positions in 11 universities, translating the vacancy position to 74 percent.

The last major recruitment was done in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh State in 2013. After Telangana came into being, the previous BRS government approved 2,825 vacancies for recruitment in 15 State universities.

In fact, the previous BRS government also passed the Telangana State Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill 2022, constituting a common recruitment board. The bill was sent to the Governor’s office for approval. However, the then Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan had referred the bill to the President, and it is yet to see the light of the day.

Meanwhile, the Congress government issued GO MS 21, detailing guidelines for recruitment of teaching faculty in universities, last year. However, teacher job aspirants raised serious concerns over allotting a mere 10 marks for the PhD as against 30 marks as per UGC norms. They threatened to take up the issue legally if the government goes ahead with GO MS 21.

In addition, contract assistant professors have been demanding that the government go for recruitment after regularisation of their services or give them weightage in hiring, citing their long service in universities. Similarly, part-time teachers have been pitching for weightage in recruitment.

“If services are regularised, posts for direct recruitment will come down. Moreover, there will be opposition from the unemployed. We are rectifying the weightage for PhD in the recruitment. We got clear instructions to go ahead with the recruitment process. We are trying to resolve all issues and, in a month or two, the hiring process will commence,” a senior official said.