A view of the University Grants Commission, in New Delhi. File
As a number of 1000’s of posts of faculty members – from professors to assistant professors – stay vacant in 45 central universities, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has determined to create a common web site to coordinate the appointment course of in these varsities.
The proposed web site, which is predicted to be launched quickly, will perform as an “announcement board” the place vacancies might be posted.
A senior UGC official informed The Hindu that aspirants can create their profiles within the web site and functions could be despatched instantly from the web site. At current, every college invitations functions individually.
“With this website, aspirants will not have to visit the websites of the 45 universities to know about openings. They can apply using their profile in just one click. It will make the process transparent and easy,” the official stated, including that interviews might be dealt with by respective departments. An analogous system for appointments has been in use in 23 IITs within the nation.
The official stated the window is not going to be restricted to central universities. “As of now, it will be for central universities. Over the time, we will encourage IITs, IIMs, state universities and private universities to make their vacancy announcements here so that this will work as a platform for academic jobs,” the official added.
Large variety of vacancies
Recently, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had stated in Lok Sabha that 6,180 posts of professors, affiliate professors and assistant professors, out of the 18,956 sanctioned posts, have been mendacity vacant in central universities.
In IITs, 4,502 out of the 11,170 sanctioned posts have been mendacity vacant as of December, 2022 and in IIMs, 493 out of the 1,566 faculty posts have been vacant. “Occurrence of vacancies and filling thereof is a continuous process. Central universities are autonomous bodies, established under respective Central Acts. Their recruitment procedure is formulated by their statutory bodies in accordance with their acts, statues, rules and UGC regulations or guidelines,” Mr. Pradhan had stated.
He added that his Ministry had directed all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to refill the vacancies in a mission mode and that the Ministry had arrange a month-to-month monitoring mechanism for this.
Academics sceptical
Academics, nonetheless, are watching this transfer to introduce a common web site, with suspicion. “There are two issues in this. Central universities are established under Acts of Parliament. Step by step, this government is ending the the autonomous nature of these varsities. This is yet another step in that direction. For a centralised appointment system, the Centre will have to amend the Acts of these central universities. So this proposed system should not be and will not implemented without Parliament’s approval. It will be illegal as it is a method to centralise appointments. Secondly, we fear there is a ploy to rig the appointments of faculty members by the ruling party,” stated Rajeev Kunwar of Democratic Teachers Front in Delhi University.
As of December, among the many vacant posts, 961 positions are reserved for SC class; 578 are for ST class; and 1,657 vacancies are for OBC candidates. Similarly, the positions reserved for economically weaker sections and bodily challenged class are 643 and 301 respectively.
