Over half of the sanctioned teaching posts at the century-old University of Mysore (UoM) are lying vacant, with no appointments done since 2007. In this scenario, the university was banking on the guest faculty to carry out the academic activities with only 290 permanent teaching faculty remaining out of the sanctioned posts of 640.
How come the reputed centre of higher learning like the UoM manages the day-to-day teaching in the aftermath of serious shortage of faculty? Has the shortage affected the research activities?
Vice-chancellor N.K. Lokanath said in Mysuru on Friday, March 1, that the university had written to the government to fill up the vacant posts making appointments at the earliest to ensure academic excellence. “It has been assuring us that it will take up appointments; we are awaiting the government’s response on when the process can be initiated.”
Prof. Lokanath said 850 guest faculties were managing the academic activities in view of the vacant posts.
Registrar V.R. Shylaja said more than half of the non-teaching posts are also lying vacant in the university. Out of 1,349 sanctioned non-teaching posts, less than 500 posts are filled and the remaining are vacant.
New varsities hit UoM?
With the formation of universities in districts including Mandya and Chamarajanagar which were earlier the PG Centers of the UoM, the scope of the UoM has been reduced drastically and so the students taking admissions.
“We had 236 colleges under the UoM jurisdiction, including Mandya, Chamarajanagar. With new universities coming up in those places, the number of colleges has come down by nearly 40 percent. UoM has just 111 colleges affiliated to it while the rest are now attached to the new universities,” the VC said.
Prof. Lokanath admitted that the resources to the UoM had been affected by the colleges’ affiliation shifted to new varsities but it has been in the process of finding ways to improve its revenue in the changed scenario.
The Vice-Chancellor said he was not aware of the development when reporters asked whether the present government was rethinking on whether to continue with the new varsities or merge it back with the UoM.
The present teaching faculty strength has further reduced to 240 from 290 with the posts shifted to the newly-formed universities.
