BHUBANESWAR: Facing a severe faculty crisis, Utkal university plans to appoint 80 retired faculty members across 27 departments to manage the situation till regular appointments are restored.
Official sources said the university plans to make the temporary arrangement in the positions of professor and associate professor in all the departments. Only in the Odia department, all the posts of professor(2), associate professor (3) and assistant professor (2) will be filled up with retired faculty members. These temporary appointments will be completed before the new academic session begins in the university, informed officials.
According to reports, the state government has sanctioned 1,686 positions of professors, assistant professors and associate professors for 15 public universities but 960 (57 per cent) of them are vacant. Utkal university has a sanctioned strength of 257 faculty positions but 120 of them are vacant.
The vacancies in regular teaching posts are a result of a Supreme Court stay on Odisha Universities (Amendment) Act, 2020, as it violated the UGC regulations that govern university appointments. Through the amended Act, the state government had decided to make appointments of university faculty members and vice-chancellors through the Odisha Public Service Commission.