Research output and quality of education may be affected further unless the shortage of teaching posts in the University of Mysore was not addressed immediately since over 50% of posts are vacant and more posts are expected to become vacant with the retirement of around 8-10 teachers this year.
Disclosing this here on Tuesday, Vice-Chancellor G. Hemantha Kumar said 382 teaching posts are vacant and the university currently has 282 posts out of 664 sanctioned posts.
“This will surely affect teaching and research in the long run without permanent faculty. We have appointed guest lecturers but they cannot guide students for their doctoral degrees. As per the UGC guidelines, a permanent faculty can guide eight students at a time. In view of the shortage of faculty, students are not getting guides for their research,” he explained.
He said the matter has been brought to the notice of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Minister for Higher Education C.N. Ashwath Narayan. “Both have promised to look into the urgency of appointing teachers to the UoM. If at least the government gives consent for appointing 100 posts, the situation can improve and there won’t be any difficulty for the next 10 years,” he replied.
The V-C said the State grant to the university has declined as the UoM got ₹44 crore out of ₹92 crore that was sought for 2021 for meeting its expenditure, including payment of salaries, and pension. “In 2022, we got ₹50 crore out of ₹106 crore sought towards the expenditure. Yet, we are managing the situation and pension funds were not diverted to other expenses,” the V-C clarified.
