6,600 academic posts continue to remain vacant in central universities

As many as 6,688 academic posts in 40 central universities continue to lie vacant. notwithstanding, the government's assurance to Parliament last year of filling up all the vacant posts of teachers in the central universities “within six months”

The central universities together could fill up just 934 posts out of over 7000 vacant posts of teachers as on January 1 even as Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had asserted in the Lok Sabha in July last year that all the vacant posts will be filled up within six months.

“We will fill up all vacant posts of teachers on a war footing. (Lok Sabha) members' concerns are genuine. How can an institution serve its purpose when it does not have enough teachers. Now there is no legal hurdle. We will fill up all the vacancies at earliest,” the minister had told Lok Sabha while replying to a debate on the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on July 12 last year.

According to ministry reply to a written question recently tabled in the Rajya Sabha, a total of 6,688 teaching posts are lying vacant in the central universities with highest 863 posts in the Delhi University. In Karnataka, the number of vacant posts of teachers stood at 145. 

The total number of sanctioned posts for teachers in the central university stood at 17,029, 153 in central university of Karnataka, last year until the 10 % quota in jobs for economically weaker section candidates were enforced by the Union government.

Revised number of sanctioned post was not immediately available as the ministry did not provide any details on it recent reply to the Rajya Sabha on the issue.

“As per information made available by these Central Universities, a total of 6,688 academic posts in 40 central universities and 190 academic posts in Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) were vacant as on January 1, 2020, the HRD minister told Rajya Sabha in reply to a question on February 6

In recent days, a total of 934 vacant post have been filled up and advertisements for recruitment to 6,706 posts have been issued by the central universities, he said adding that the incidence and filling up of vacancies was an “ongoing and continuous process” which goes round the year

He, however, put the onus on the central university for filling up of the vacancies, maintaining that both his ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC) issued repeated instructions to all the central universities to fill up the vacancies on priority basis.

“The onus of filling up of posts lies on the central universities which are autonomous bodies created under the respective Acts of Parliament,” he said