GUNTUR: At a time when most of the government educational institutes are facing stiff competition from the mushrooming corporate and private educational institutes, which are offering courses from KG to PG, the University Engineering Colleges in the state still are the preferable destinations for meritorious rankers of EAMCET as the students are confident that they can learn quality education in the university colleges as they would have highly experienced faculty along with the required infrastructure.
But, the case of Acharya Nagarjuna University College of Engineering and Technology (ANUCET) is different as it is facing severe staff crunch much to the dismay of the students.
Established in 2009 on the main campus of ANU, ANUCET after getting the necessary approvals from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), however, is yet to get full faculty even six years after its emergence.
As a result, students pursuing B.Tech courses are a worried lot that their dreams to get quality education in university engineering college is getting shattered in the absence of regular faculty. ANUCET, which should have 90 teaching staff as per the norms prescribed by the AICTE is only having 50 per cent of the permanent staff. Principal Prof P Siddaiah, speaking about the staff crunch, said that the college was having 46 regular faculty members against 90. However, he was quick to add that they are hiring the services of 30 guest faculty and managing to cover the class and laboratory works.
Admitting that there was a demand from the students for regular faculty as per the norms, he said the same had been taken to the notice of the ANU Vice-Chancellor Prof A Rajendra Prasad, who assured to take necessary steps for getting the required staff.
Meanwhile, the B.Tech students are annoyed that nearly 50 per cent of teaching positions are lying vacant in an engineering college directly maintained by the university. “Though, we have expressed our resentment over the same issue, the management failed in resolving it,” the students said.