Hyderabad: There are 700 faculty vacancies in Osmania University. The sanctioned strength is 1,200 lecturers but the university is making do with 450 faculty.
There has been no recruitment of regular staff after the formation of Telangana state in 2014, only contract lecturers and guest faculty have been hired. Moreover, many senior staff are to retire in 2020.
Lack of staff is more acute in the Arts college, social sciences and science departments. The technical departments in the university engineering college are comparatively better staffed, according to sources.
Students are disappointment at the lack of staff as teaching suffers. Said one of them on condition of anonymity: "We are proud to get a seat in these prestigious state universities, assuming the standards and quality to be high, but there is not enough staff here to even teach us."
Apart from affecting the quality of teaching, the lack of staff places an additional burden on existing teachers. Each professor is given additional responsibilities, such as in charges and directors of other resource centres.
For effective implementation of the KG to PG mission or the National Education Policy, teachers are the base. “Without proper recruitment, how can students gain knowledge and who will guide them? There is an immediate need for recruitment of teachers, but nothing has happened,” said student leader Dudapaka Naresh.
