BHUBANESWAR: Even as the stay on Odisha Universities (Amendment) Act, 2020 is yet to be lifted by the Supreme Court, the Higher Education department has asked all public universities to address the faculty crisis by engaging retired or guest faculty.
On Thursday, the department directed vice-chancellors to fill up vacancies against sanctioned posts of assistant and associate professors and professors by engaging retired, adjunct and guest faculty till the SC lifts the stay and regular appointments are initiated. Government has also allowed engagement of more such faculty as per the institution’s requirements.
The universities will have to create a six-member selection committee to look into such recruitments. In 13 public universities, the sanctioned strength of faculty members is 1,800. In wake of the vacancies, the government has allowed higher educational institutions to fill up 1,192 posts with retired, adjunct and guest faculty members. Before the SC stay on the OU(Amendment) Act 2020, the UGC had stopped faculty recruitment across the country for several months.