Acute shortage of staff at 100-year-old UVCE

The Karnataka government recently decided to form an expert committee to decide on the future of University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE).

This was after the tug-of-war between Bangalore Central University (BCU) and Bangalore University (BU).

However, there is another hurdle the college has been facing for many years, which is slowly impacting the quality of education.

In UVCE, out of the 175 sanctioned posts for full-time teaching staff, only 91 positions are filled. Meanwhile, most of the existing teaching staff are nearing retirement this year. So currently, 84 teaching positions are vacant. This will increase by the end of this year as there is no recruitment on at present.

“Following UGC guidelines, we have not been able to find suitable candidates for various posts. We are managing with guest faculties. How much can we depend on them? There are some decisions that need to be taken by full-time employees, which is not happening for many years. Guest faculties have limited power,” a senior UVCE official told DH.

Moreover, UVCE is also facing a scarcity of technical or non-teaching staff. As per the data provided, out of the 200 non-teaching staff positions, UVCE is functioning with 60.

“Our office work slows down because of the staff crunch. It’s not even 50% of the required number right now,” the official added.

When the BU vice-chancellor, Venugopal K R was quizzed about the situation, he said, “We are recruiting more guest faculties. The quality has never been compromised as there is a record of 100% placement with UVCE. I am aware of the importance of permanent faculties; we are waiting for UGC approval. Within two months, all the vacant positions will be filled with guest faculties. Even for guest faculties, we are considering candidates with NET, SLET or PhD.”