HYDERABAD: It appears that the faculty crunch in Osmania University, which has hit a new low, has come to stay. The university, set up in 1917 by the seventh Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, of Hyderabad, is gearing up to celebrate its centenary and there is no headway on filling its vast number of permanent faculty posts.
As of today, over 50 per cent of the positions for teachers sanctioned by the government lie vacant. The situation is such that some departments function with one teacher. In some departments, all the professors have retired. They manage with just either one or two assistant professors.
The data gathered from the Telangana State Council for Higher Education (TSCHE), as on December 15, confirms that out of the 1,264 sanctioned permanent posts, 732 have been lying vacant since September last year.
TSCHE vice-president S Mallesh says, “Osmania University issued a notification for backlog recruitments 15 days ago. It has been the government’s instructions to hire teachers for every department as per the UGC norms.”
On the other hand, the university blames the bad situation on fund crunch. Gopal Reddy, registrar, says, “The last recruitments of teachers was conducted by us in 2013. After that we have been compensating for the lack of teachers by hiring teachers on contractual basis. We have not received enough funds or support from the state government despite having written to them on various occasions ever since.”
Battu Satyanarayana, president of Osmania University Teachers’ Association, says, “The university can recruit for certain posts only if the finance department’s response is in concurrence with the administrative decisions.” However, he says, the university has recently written to the TSCHE and the state government in this regard but no response has been received.
MA Alimoddin, a student of M.Sc (Geophysics), says, “For a two-year course and 16 papers there are only three professors. The faculty hired on contract do not know their subject well. Hence we lag behind others.”
Sreenu from astronomy department points out that the burden on them was making teachers lose their patience and, consequently, their teaching efficiency. A first-year student of psychology, Habib, thinks that professors fail to provide the much-needed individual attention to students. Expressing similar views, Akash from Hindi department says that a prestigious university like OU could do much more for its students, most of whom hail from backward communities and regions.
Manne Krishank, Osmania University Joint Action Committee(OUJAC) spokesperson, says, “We have been demanding regularisation of posts for teachers hired on contract basis. Till now, the necessary funds have not been released. It appears that the administration is trying to dilute the issue.”