VIJAYAWADA: A large number of experienced faculty members from private engineering colleges in the State are likely to lose their jobs with the new guidelines issued by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) ahead of the 2018-19 academic year fixing faculty-student ratio as 1:20.
With the new faculty-student ratio proposed by the AICTE, almost 25 per cent of the faculty members are likely to lose their jobs as many managements have decided to lay-off excess faculty members.
According to AICTE, the new Student-Faculty Ratio (SFR) is 20:1 for the 2018-19 academic year and one professor or senior faculty member must be there for every 20 students. Earlier, the SFR was 15:1. However, at present in a majority of the private colleges across the State, the student-faculty ratio is ranging from 40:1 to 60:1.
A good number of private engineering colleges are gearing up to terminate a good number of their teaching staff. In fact, a majority of the engineering college managements in the State have either issued notices, pink slips to teachers or terminated many.
As on date, over 380 lecturers working in various private colleges have been terminated.
K Chandrasekhar from QIS College of Engineering and Technology, Ongole, said, “I have been working as an assistant professor for the past 10 years. But, even after having 10 years of experience, the college asked me to leave by just giving one month salary in advance. To be true, I am clueless about my future now.”
However, college authorities claim that the terminations are based on the performance of the faculty members.
“AICTE might have increased the student-faculty ratio, but we are terminating some faculty members based on their below par performance. We take the feedback from the students and based on our college policy, we are terminating them,” said a principal of a private college, on condition of anonymity.
KM Karthik, founder of All-India Private College Employees Union (AIPCEU), said, “The termination of staff is taking place in full swing even though the engineering colleges are not meeting the ratio of 1:20 or 1:30. Almost over 4,000 teaching staff might lose their jobs this year. However, the State government or the officials of technical education are least bothered about the issue. In fact, a majority of the colleges are terminating the senior faculty members and again hiring fresh teachers by paying fewer salaries.”
A reputed private college in Vijayawada sacked almost 45 teaching staff, including professors. As the per the AICTE rule, all the professors must have PhD. However, the existing faculty members claim that PhD will not make any difference when it comes to teaching. Meanwhile, the officials of State Technical Education Department said that the new guidelines issued by AICTE will not affect the teaching faculty in a big way.
GS Panda Das, Commissioner of Technical Education, said, “There are over 270 private engineering colleges in the State and 10,000 to 15,000 faculty members in them. Those who don’t have PhDs and continue as professors might be demoted. If they are willing to work after the demotion, the college management may retain them and the others may be asked to resign. A few colleges are sacking a few of the assistant and associate professors too, but it is not at an alarming rate.”