Telangana: Appointments of university faculty have to wait for six more months

Hyderabad: Appointment of faculty members in the Telangana State Universities have to wait for six more months.

According to the sources in the State Higher Education Department (SHED), given the current scenario, it is unlikely that the unending saga of the appointment of university faculty will end anywhere in the next six months.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior official of the SHED said currently the state government has issued notification for the appointment of the vice-chancellors for 10 state universities. "the process of appointment of the VCs stretches till the end of March-April 2024. The faculty appointments will take place only after thenew VCs are appointed."

However, given the time frame for the appointment of the VCs, the state government will not be in a position to take up the appointment process since the election code will be in place for the general elections. "Considering the VC appointments and the intervening election process leaves no scope for taking up the faculty appointments," the sources added.

However, the recruitment process could be taken up, if the job notification is issued in February 2024 before the issue of the poll notification. However, the issue of the appointment of a Common Recruitment Board (CRB) initiated by the earlier government was left in the lurch halfway. The current government has to take a decision afresh whether to constitute a CRB or conduct an entrance examinations by the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC). Or, it will go by the recruitment process prescribed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and leave the process to the universities to take up the appointments.

Further, the Osmania, Kakatiya and other universities submitted the reservation rosters to the SHED three years ago. In addition, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked the State universities and their affiliated colleges to submit the reservation rosters by December 31, 2021. This was to complete the process of the recruitment process within a stipulated time frame of six months. The universities and their affiliated colleges were asked for the details of all the vacant teaching posts, along with the reservations and advertisement details uploaded on the University Activity Monitoring Portal (UAMP) of UGC.

The higher education regulator points out repeatedly that the shortage of faculty has become a major issue impacting the standards of higher education institutions. However, all the pleas from the regulators, universities and job aspirants have fallen on deaf ears and faculty recruitment remained in the doldrums.