Although Osmania University announced the results of interviews conducted for recruitment of assistant professors for various departments more than a week ago, subject-wise selections are yet to be made public. Some departments, mainly in the Arts College, have been functioning for years with skeletal teaching staff and desperately need more teachers. Even the current recruitment may not be enough, say academicians.
As of now, subjects like Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Arabic, French, German, Hindi, Islamic Studies, Kannada, Marathi, Linguistics, Tamil, Theatre Arts, Library Science and Psychology have teachers numbering just one to five. Not surprisingly, the Russian department has been shut down due to lack of staff. It will not be difficult to imagine the situation when the current set of teachers in the above-mentioned departments will retire.
“There were no recruitments for nine years. The university has a lot of academic consultants instead of regular faculty members. Even in the current process, where only 200 people will be hired, 500 posts will still remain vacant,” said a senior faculty member. Mallesh Sankasala, principal, Arts College, said the situation would improve only if the state government sanctioned more teaching posts. “Only the government can take the initiative and do something to redeem the situation,” he said.
Another professor from the Arts College pointed out that departments with lean faculty end up becoming admission centres for student leaders who seek enrolment simply to stay on the campus. “The matter aggravated after the 2009 student agitations, after which many student organisations would threaten with violence unless their demands were met,” said Srinivas, a student. Most of the classrooms in the Arts College are empty on anyday, he said.
Earlier, it was because of the lack of faculty members that the Psychology department lost its Centre for Advanced Studies which was funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC). When contacted, S Satyanarayana, vice-chancellor, admitted to shortage of teachers in such departments, and said that another proposal for recruitment of 200 more faculty members was sent.
“I have written to the government on this. The files are moving slowly due to the political situation in the state but it will be done,” he hoped. When asked about the results of the remaining 14 departments pertaining to the current recruitment, he said it would be out after the next executive meeting which will be held in October.
