BHUBANESWAR: Sixty-five per cent of faculty positions in state’s public universities are lying vacant as the Odisha Universities Act stalemate is yet to be resolved.
There are 17 public universities in the state with a combined sanctioned faculty strength of 2,003. But, the number of faculty members in position is just 696. This was informed by the Higher Education Minister Suryabanshi Suraj in the Assembly on Friday.
It has been five years since a new faculty member was appointed in any public university in the state. The recruitment has been stalled due to the Supreme Court's stay on the Odisha Universities (Amendment) Act, 2020 which was brought into effect by the previous BJD government.
Utkal university, which is considered the state’s premiere higher education institution, has 136 vacant posts against the sanctioned 239. Ravenshaw that earned the coveted NAAC A++ grade last year has only 110 faculty members in position against 267. Sambalpur and Berhampur universities also have 60 per cent of their sanctioned posts at 135 and 182 respectively vacant.
Four more universities including Odia University (21 posts) at Satyabadi, Khallikote university (112) at Berhampur, Dharanidhar university (97) at Keonjhar and Vikram Dev university (111) at Jeypore are yet to recruit regular faculty members. These new universities have been opened in the last five years.
To manage the 1,307 vacant faculty positions, the Higher Education department has roped in 963 guest teachers, primarily at the assistant professor level. Odisha State Open University has no sanctioned positions yet and is being run by guest teachers since its inception in 2015.
Vice-chancellors said while this is not just impacting education, most of the state’s public universities are being forced to reduce the intake of PhD scholars due to an acute shortage of regular faculty.
The new government had in November last year decided to amend the parent act - Odisha Universities Act, 1989 - to grant more autonomy to universities for making the appointments. It was approved by the state cabinet too and the government on December 3 introduced it in the Assembly. The Bill, however, could neither be discussed nor passed.
“After the amended law is cleared in the Assembly, recruitment of faculty members will be taken up in a streamlined manner,” the Higher Education minister said.
