The Osmania University (OU), which is already crippling with dearth of faculty members, will lose 32 senior teachers from various department for attaining superannuation next year.
Of the 1,254 teaching positions, OU has only 450 permanent teachers. More than half the teaching position are lying vacant due to superannuation of teaching staff members. The situation is only worsening every year with departments functioning y with handful of teachers, majorly at the junior level.
The Telangana government had sanctioned permissions to fill 415 vacant faculty positions in the university, including 219 associate professors and 121 assistant professors.
However, the university could not conduct recruitment drive for a good part of last year due to the Centre’s plan to introduce a new roaster system which underwent stiff opposition and court cases.
The university last held a recruitment drive in 2012, when about 170 teaching posts were filled. -Now, with teachers retiring from key departments such as physics, botany, statistics, mathematics and commerce among others the university is likely to face major jolt.
“All work pertaining to PhDs has come to a standstill as there are not enough faculty members to guide research scholars. Existing teachers are overburdened as they handle academic and administrative positions,” said a member of the OU Teachers Association.
Dearth of teachers will also impact funding from various agencies. According to sources, the university will lose close to Rs 107 crore grant under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) if it does not recruit faculty members by March, 2020. As per RUSA guidelines, 85 per cent of faculty positions in the university must be filled. #KhabarLive