Staff shortage crippling universities in Telangana

All departments in Kakatiya University are functioning with less than 50% staff; the situation is almost similar in other varsities too
Staff shortage crippling universities in Telangana

WARANGAL: Shortage of qualified faculty members across disciplines in Kakatiya University is affecting the quality of education. Almost all the departments offering post-graduation courses on the KU campus are functioning with less than 50 per cent of the total sanctioned faculty strength.

While the sanctioned strength of teaching faculty is 391, nearly 160 regular teachers are working at the university. In view of this, the state government had given orders last year to fill 136 posts. “ I am aware about the shortage of regular teaching staff. We will be filling all the vacant posts within three months,” said R Sayanna, KU Vice-Chancellor.

As per UGC norms, every department should have one professor, two associate professors and four assistant professors, but in KU almost all the departments are functioning with less than 50 per cent strength. Interestingly, of the present 160 regular faculty members, about 30 will be retiring in the next three months, bringing down the figure to 130.

Take the case of Department of Economics -of the six faculty members, three will be retiring in the next three months. Similarly, Public Administration department has five faculty members and of them, two will retire soon. Other department like Political Science has only two faculty members, History and Telugu departments have three each. About 25 departments in the university are short-staffed. Interestingly, KU had been accorded ‘A’ Grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), despite shortage of staff. Sources said that the university officials are trying to fill the vacant posts at the earliest as the university may lose the ‘A’ Grade tag if they continue with the present numbers.
During the Academic Senate meeting that was held to discuss the university’s budget for 2018-19, former vice chancellors expressed concern over shortage of staff.

Speaking to Express, the University’s former Vice-Chancellor Gopal Reddy expressed serious concern over shortage of staff. “How can one expect to improve the standard of the university with low staff strength? The university’s Vice-Chancellor should take immediate steps to fill all the vacant teaching posts. If this is not done, the quality of education will be affected which in turn will bring a bad name to the university.” He said the university should select highly qualified persons to teach. “Private universities are being set up in the state and if we do not improve our standard of teaching, we will perish,” he said.

“Shortage of regular faculty members is causing a lot of hardship for students. We have come to the university to get quality education. If we do not have highly qualified faculty members, how do you expect us to gain knowledge?” said, a post-graduation student of Economics department. He added that the university authorities should immediately take steps to fill the vacancies.

Shortage is also there because the university is unable or is unwilling to hire faculty members. “Shortage of staff is leading to extra teaching load on existing faculty members, because of which we are unable to concentrate on our research work,” an assistant professor said.

Telangana  University

69 teaching posts, 10 non-teaching post vacant in TU

Nizamabad: Several teaching and non-teaching staff posts at Telangana University are lying vacant for the last several years.  It has been 15 years that TU has been established, but staff shortage continues to plague this university. According to Telangana University officials, 144 teaching posts have been sanctioned including professors, assistant professors, associate professors. Of which, 69 are lying vacant. Of the 18 non-teaching staff sanctioned, 10 are lying vacant.

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