A third of Central varsity teaching positions lying vacant

Source: The post is based on the article “A third of Central varsity teaching positions lying vacant”  published in The Hindu on 20th July 2023

What is the News?

According to a Right To Information(RTI) reply, over 30% of teaching positions are lying vacant in 45 Central Universities across India.

What is the data regarding the vacant position lying in Central Universities across India?

Vacant seats: Over 30% of teaching positions are lying vacant in 45 Central Universities across India.

State wise: Around 88% of the teaching positions were vacant in Odisha’s central universities — the highest among all States. 

– On the other hand, Mizoram and Kerala had the least share of vacancies — 15% or less.

Universities: Central University of Andhra Pradesh had a 100% vacancy, with none of the sanctioned teaching positions filled.

– The Central University of Odisha, Dr. Harisingh Gour University in Madhya Pradesh, the Central Kashmir University and the Tripura University had over 50% of seats vacant.

Caste wise: Only 20% of teacher positions sanctioned under the general category were vacant compared to 44% among OBC positions, 38% among SC positions and 45% among ST positions.

– Notably 71% of posts sanctioned under the EWS quota and 58% under the Persons with Disabilities were also vacant. 

– Hence, among all the reservation groups, General Category positions had the least vacancy share.

What are the main reasons for these higher vacancies in Central Universities?

Location: Vacancies can arise in some universities which are located in remote rural areas. For instance, the Central University of Odisha is located in Sunabeda town of Koraput district in Odisha which is up to 486 km away from the State capital, Bhubaneshwar.

Age of the University: Central University of Andhra Pradesh was founded in 2018.This is a fairly new university. It usually takes three to five years for a Central University to have a fully functional campus. In these campuses, teaching faculty from older Universities are often asked to mentor and handhold until vacant positions get filled.

What are the steps being taken by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to address vacancies in Central Universities?

CU- Chayan portal has been launched by University Grants Commission (UGC).

Purpose: It is a unified recruitment portal designed and developed specifically for faculty recruitment in Central Universities.

– The portal provides a common platform for listing vacancies/advertisements/ faculty positions across all Universities. The Portal makes the recruitment process entirely online, from application to screening with alerts to all the portal users.