• 51 guest faculty in Nagaland University; 66 vacant posts
• In NE, vacancies highest in NEHU; Manipur University leads in Guest Faculty
Morung Express News
Dimapur | July 23
Most Central Universities (CU) in India, including those located in the North-East and Nagaland, have high temporary faculty, though higher number of posts were lying vacant in those universities, according to official data compiled by the Union Ministry of Education (MoE).
As on April 1, 2022, there were 552 temporary faculty in 9 CUs located in the North-East region, while there were 3,904 such engagements in 46 CUs across India, highlighted the data provided by the Union Minister of State in the MoE, Dr Subhas Sarkar to a written reply in the Lok Sabha on July 18.
Temporary faculty include those on ad-hoc, guest, contractual or re-employment basis.
Overall, the University of Delhi had the highest number of temporary faculty at 1,344, mostly on ‘Contract Basis’ (1044).
The Aligarh Muslim University was next at 282, followed by 190 at the Central Sanskrit University, New Delhi, India.
In the NE, Manipur University had the highest number of ‘Guest Faculty’ at 129, followed by the North Eastern Hill University, Meghalaya (75) and Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh (67).
Out of 3,904 temporary faculty engaged across the country, 1,931 were ‘Guest Faculty’ and 1,820 were on ‘Contract Basis.’
During the same period, however, there were vacancy of 875 permanent teaching positions in 9 NE CUs and 6,549 posts across India, as per another reply from the Ministry.
The University of Delhi led the vacancies in permanent teaching positions at 900, followed by the University of Allahabad (622) and Banaras Hindu University (532).
Among the CUs in NE, vacant teaching position was highest at the North Eastern Hill University, Meghalaya (179) followed by Tripura University (146) and Manipur University (127).
In the lone CU of the state, Nagaland University, there were 51 ‘Guest Faculty’ while there were 66 vacant posts as of April 1, 2022. Category-wise, the vacancies include 44 General; 16 Schedule Caste; 2 Schedule Tribe; 3 Other Backward Class and 1 Persons with Disabilities.
No proposal to absorb ad-hoc teachers
Meanwhile, the MoE further informed that currently there is no proposal under consideration in University Grants Commission (UGC) to absorb the ad-hoc teachers as permanent teachers.
However, the MoE and UGC, from time to time, have requested all the Central Universities to fill up the posts on regular basis, it maintained.
Regarding vacant posts, the Ministry informed that occurrence and filling up posts is a “continuous process” and vacancies arise due to retirement, resignation and additional requirements on account of enhanced students’ strength.
The institutions are adopting various measures to address faculty shortages in order to ensure that studies of students are not affected by engaging research scholars, contract, re-employed, adjunct and visiting faculty, it said,
The MoE has requested all the Central Higher Educational Institutions to fill up the vacancies in a mission mode within a period of one year starting from September 5, 2021 and since August 2021, 4,807 posts in CU have been advertised for which the selection processes are on, it added.
