55% of Professor Posts Vacant in Central Universities

According to an official data of Human Resource Development Ministry, over 5,997 faculty positions are vacant in central universities across the country. The proportion of vacant seats has been increasing as some of the existing faculty members are surpassing the employment age for teaching. Across 40 central universities across the country, 4,807 (46%) associate positions and 2,421 (55%) professor positions are vacant. However, the vacancies among the entry-level remained lower with 25%.

A senior official of HRD Ministry pointed that the vacancies are arising due to the expansion of existing institutes, opening new institutes, resignations, deputations, retirements and deaths. Most of the central universities are relying on guest and contract lecturers to fill up the vacancies temporarily. In 2017, all the central universities employed a total number of 2,665 temporary teaching staff.

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The HRD Ministry has urged central universities to fill up the vacant faculty positions on a priority basis. Lack of adequate and experienced faculty will affect the quality of education.

Popular central universities in India like the University of Hyderabad, Banaras Hindu University, Aligarh Muslim University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and others are facing problems due to faculty shortage. It is time for these universities to take steps for filling up the vacant positions as early as possible.

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The situation of the Central University of Haryana can be termed as worse, as numerous teaching positions are vacant, followed by the University of Allahabad. The University of Delhi has 54.75% faculty positions vacant as per the data of HRD Ministry.