BHOPAL: Nineteen months after the state government set up Krantisurya Tantia Bhil University in tribal-dominated southwestern Madhya Pradesh to strengthen higher education, the Khargone-based varsity has 25,000 students but no permanent faculty member, with all 140 sanctioned professor posts lying vacant.
"As many as 80 posts of assistant professors, 40 associate professors and 20 professors are sanctioned in the university, but presently, all those are lying vacant. It’s not possible to tell the time frame by when these posts will be filled," state's Higher Education Minister Inder Singh Parmar, admitted in a written reply to Congress MLA Jhuma Solanki’s question on the issue, during the ongoing budget session of the Vidhan Sabha.
The university, which started functioning in July 2024, has been named after tribal icon Tantia Bhil, a tribal freedom fighter of the late 19th century, who holds iconic status among tribals, particularly in MP, and is popularly addressed as Tantia Mama.
When questioned on the issue further by the third-time Congress MLA from Bhikangaon-ST seat, the minister added, "Since the university’s recruitment process is presently underway, the government has allocated seven academic posts on deputation, besides 14 faculty positions being filled by the guest teachers."
The minister also informed that in line with the directions from the central government to all universities to fill the vacant teaching positions by June 2026, the MP government has asked all Kul Gurus (vice chancellors) and registrars to complete the recruitment process soon.
“All the universities have been asked to complete the recruitment process in 4-5 months,” the minister said.
The university is presently running undergraduate courses in agriculture, arts, commerce and science, besides post graduate program in commerce.
However, all those academic courses are being run by temporary teaching faculties (guest teachers) or teachers on deputation. Even the varsity’s building is not reportedly permanent.
While alleging that the adverse consequences of the prevailing situation are being borne by the students, the Congress MLA said neither are the exams being held timely nor are the exam results being declared in time. Many of the courses that the students may want to get enrolled in are yet to start. Even when examinations are held, mark sheets are often not issued. Without mark sheets, scholarships are getting stuck.
She further pointed towards the absence of an executive council, meaning that the varsity’s decision-making structure also remains incomplete.
Surprisingly, a similar situation reportedly prevails at the Raja Shankar Shah University in Chhindwara district (a university named after another tribal hero of India’s first war of freedom), also, as all 100 sanctioned teaching posts have been lying vacant.
The students at the varsity in Chhindwara are openly speaking about a limited number of temporary teachers handling a major load, resulting in many papers remaining uncovered. As per official sources at the Raja Shankar Shah University, interviews for filling up the permanent teaching positions are expected to begin by December 2026, after which the vacancies will be filled up fully.
A somewhat similar situation exists in the Krantiveer Tantya Tope University in Guna district, where several undergraduate and postgraduate courses are being run without permanent teachers.
Importantly, the state government had also, in a written reply in the Vidhan Sabha, informed that across MP’s 17 government universities, 793 or 74% of the 1,069 sanctioned assistant professor posts were vacant. Shockingly, five universities reportedly do not have a single permanent assistant professor.
Importantly, the aforesaid universities were particularly started in tribal and backward areas in the recent years in the state, 22% of whose population comes from the scheduled tribe segment. More than 80 assembly seats out of the total 230 seats have major tribal population, with 47 of them being reserved for ST.