BCU seeks govt college teachers to tide staff shortage

Bengaluru Central University (BCU) plans to rope in senior lecturers and heads of departments (HoDs) from government colleges to address the staff shortage in the current academic year.

A senior BCU official said there was a severe staff crunch in the university’s departments. The erstwhile Bangalore University (BU) was divided into three: BU, BCU and Bengaluru North University (BNU).

Most of the senior teachers opted for BU. “There is also a directive from the University Grants Commission (UGC) that we cannot recruit new teachers for the time being,” he told DH.

“We have been left in a lurch. We cannot depend on guest lecturers. We badly need senior hands in many departments.”

A source said top BCU officials had already identified teachers from different government colleges to
teach in the university departments.

Experienced hands

Confirming the development, Vice-Chancellor S Japhet said: “Departments like history, mathematics, Kannada, English, computer science and journalism need experienced hands. We have requested the higher education department to depute some teachers from government colleges.”

In a letter to the department, Japhet particularly sought the services of teachers for Kannada, English and computer science departments. K Y Narayanaswamy, Subash Rajamaane, Ramesh Reddy, Vidya Maria Joseph and Rashmi M are some of the
teachers whose services were sought.

The procedure

Clarifying the procedure to depute government college lecturers to universities, S Malleshwarappa, Director, Department of Collegiate Education, said: “This decision should be taken at the government level. Since the BCU is a new university, there is a provision to do so.

The government followed the same method in the case of Tumkur University.

But the deputed faculty will remain our employees.”