HANAMKONDA: Two-thirds of faculty posts are vacant in Kakatiya University (KU), which mostly serves Warangal, Khammam, and Karimnagar districts. The posts are vacant as there has been no recruitment for the last decade, harming the educational ecosystem of North Telangana.
According to data accessed by TNIE from Kakatiya University (KU), of the 409 regular teaching staff, only 86 are working, and the remaining 323 posts are still vacant. There are 171 vacancies for non-teaching staff which have been pending.
There are 138 contract teachers, 49 contract teachers in self-finance courses, 58 part-time teachers, 108 part-time teachers in self-finance courses, and 38 temporary teaching staff.
Kakatiya University (KU) Registrar Prof T Srinivasa Rao admitted to TNIE that several vacancies of teaching and non-teaching staff remain unfilled. He said the recruitment has to be done by the state government. He said they were running the show with part-time and guest faculty.
Since the inception of the state of Telangana, the university has not filled the vacancies that had arisen following the retirement of several professors and departmental staff. This has largely affected the academic environment of the university, denying students better instruction and the increase in the workload on those who are left on the rolls.
The student unions keep raising their voices time and again against the attitude of the government. However, it has still not taken any steps to improve the situation.
Recently, the students of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) staged a protest against the PhD administration department, alleging the occurrence of irregularities in the admission process. The protest was supported by the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Thatikonda Ramesh himself.
The student unions are protesting against the university’s lack of initiative in ensuring compliance with UGC norms as far as teaching is concerned. Even as the students agitate for the recruitment of the faculty, similar protests are taking place against irregularities in Ph.D. admissions at Kakatiya University (KU).
A PG student of Kakatiya University (KU), who did not want to be quoted said that the university is now struggling due to a lack of enough faculty members. The students are agitating for recruitment to fill vacancies and completion of the syllabus in time at the university, he said.