Fill up teachers posts or lose UGC 12 B status: HRD Min

Higher education institutions may have to lose financial assistance from the university grants commission (UGC) if they fail to fill up the vacant posts of faculty members “in a time-bound manner” as prescribed by the regulator.

With a large number of universities and colleges continuing to remain indifferent towards filling up vacant posts of teachers, the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has toughened its stand.

At a recent meeting with the state officials on the implementation of the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), the Ministry asked them to initiate the recruitment process “forthwith”.

“Failure to fill up the vacancies in a time-bound manner may result in withdrawal of 12 B status of the higher education institutions by the UGC,” the Ministry conveyed to the states. The meeting, held through video conference, was chaired by ministry's higher education secretary R Subrahmanyam.

Grant of 12 B status to higher education institutions under the UGC Act makes them eligible for central assistance.

The process to fill up as many 7,000 vacant posts of the teachers in centrally-funded higher education institutions, including central universities, have been initiated under the close monitoring of the UGC with the HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal directing for initiating the process in "a mission mode" to fill up all vacancies in six months.

A large number of institutions which are functioning in the states are yet to follow the suit despite several requests and instructions from the Centre.

In June, the UGC issued a set of guidelines to all universities and colleges for filling up vacancies "at the earliest".

As per the regulator's guidelines, the higher education institutions have to complete the recruitment process within a period of six months from the date of identifying the vacant posts. The States were also directed to monitor the recruitment process to ensure that it is completed within the time-frame stipulated by the UGC.