Over 70% university teaching posts vacant in Telangana as recruitment remains stalled

Recruitment to teaching posts in Telangana universities remains stalled more than a year after the State government issued guidelines. With over 70 per cent of teaching posts vacant, universities are relying on temporary faculty, while aspirants have raised concerns over PhD marks.

Hyderabad: More than a year has passed since the Telangana Congress government issued direct recruitment guidelines for teaching vacancies in the 12 universities in the State, but the hiring process has still not moved an inch.

This delay in recruitment is hampering the quality of education in the universities, even as Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had made tall claims of developing them on the lines of Stanford and Oxford Universities.

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More than 70 per cent of teaching faculty posts in universities across the State are vacant. Several departments are being run with guest lecturers and contract faculty. In the absence of regular appointments, universities are managing with academic consultants and part-time faculty.

After last major recruitment in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh State in 2013, the previous BRS government had approved 2,825 vacancies for recruitment in 15 State universities. It passed the Telangana State Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill 2022, constituting a common recruitment board for the universities.

The Bill had been sent to the Governor’s office for approval. However, the then Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan had referred it to the President, and it is yet to see the light of day.

Meanwhile, the Congress government issued GO MS 21, detailing guidelines for recruitment of teaching faculty in universities, last year. However, teacher job aspirants have raised serious concerns over allotting a mere 10 marks for the PhD as against 30 marks as per UGC norms. The government is yet to make a decision on this GO and recruitment.