NEW DELHI: Students pursuing Ph.D or doctoral courses in Central universities including the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IITS) can teach those studying at undergraduate levels, a parliamentary committee on Human resource development has recommended to the government.
The suggestions have been given on the grounds that the Union ministry of HRD is struggling to fill about 35 per cent faculty vacancies in these institutes.
The panel has also pulled up the government for extending the retirement age of central university teachers till 65 years saying “this cannot be a permanent or long-sighted solution for faculty shortage”.
In its comments on the action taken report on the demands of grants for higher education, the 32-member committee, headed by Satyanarayan Jatiya, the has expressed concern over acute shortage of faculties in higher education in all the institutions including the private ones.
“There can be only two possibilities, either our young talented students are not attracted towards the teaching profession or the recruitment process is a prolonged one and involves too many procedural formalities,” panel noted in the report tabled in the House last week.
According to the government records, the total number of sanctioned teaching posts in various central Universities is 16600 (2,376 Professor, 4,708 Associate Professor, 9,521 Assistant Professor). Out of these 5,928 teaching posts are lying vacant.
“The Committee feels that the HRD ministry should encourage the institutions to make the students pursuing Ph. D or Doctoral degrees to teach some courses at the degree level with some financial support,” the report has said.
“This would encourage more students to take up teaching profession and also mitigate the crises of faculty shortage in these institutes,” it also added.
Officials in the HRD ministry, however said that a “detailed consultation of the panel’s suggestions to let students pursuing Ph.D or doctoral programmes was yet to be carried out”.
“We need to have broad deliberations within and outside the government over this important suggestion,” a senior official told this newspaper.
The panel also stressed that shortage of faculty, including in State universities as well as private universities, premier institutions like IITs, National Institute of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) has emerged as the “biggest handicap”.
The efforts of the ministry and the regulatory bodies like University Grants Commission and All India Institute of Technical Education (AICTE) have not been adequate enough to reach a satisfactory level, the panel noted.
The Committee also made a strong comment about the delays in the recruitment process of Vice-Chancellors in universities saying it leads to lowering of academic standards.