BHUBANESWAR: The faculty members of Government-run universities have renewed their demand of raising the retirement age from 60 to 65.
Faculty members of Utkal, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Ravenshaw and Ramadevi Universities besides BPUT and OUAT have threatened to resort to agitation if the Government does not look into their demand.
Speaking to mediapersons, they said while West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh have already raised the retirement age of faculty members of universities from 60 to 65, Odisha is yet to do so. The University Grants Commission's pay review committee has recently recommended the Centre and the State to increase the retirement age of university teachers to 65.
They said while there are large-scale vacancies in posts of faculty member in almost all the universities, the experienced teachers are retiring and no new appointments are being made. "Under these conditions, the Government should look at increasing the retirement age so that teaching and learning in universities are not affected," said president of OUAT Teachers' Association Bibhuda Parasar.