The new session has taken off, but the old problem of severe faculty crunch persists. Many flag-ship departments are so heavily depleted that they are on the verge of collapse. The Department of Chemistry where the sanctioned faculty positions are 47, only 12 regular teachers are left to run the department at present. The Institute of Chemical Engineering, one of the prestigious institutes in the field, is on the ventilator. In Chemical Engineering only 20 faculty teachers are running the department against the sanctioned positions of 44. The Department of Zoology is virtually left with about half-a-dozen faculty members against the sanctioned posts of 14. The situation in the departments of humanities and social sciences is very grim. While, the number of students has increased substantially due to addition of new courses and mandatory increase of 5-10% seats every year, the faculty strength has shrunk to nearly 40%.Every year senior faculty retires, but there is no corresponding replenishment. In the Department of Economics there are only 9 teachers left out of 18 sanctioned positions and at present the number of guest faculty far outnumbers the regular faculty. In the Department of Sanskrit only two regular teachers are left against the sanctioned positions of 9. With the retirement of another faculty member from the department of Physical Education this month, at present the entire burden of teaching and research has to be now shouldered by 4 teachers whereas the sanctioned positions are 15. In the Department of Evening Studies only 30 teachers are left out of 46 sanctioned posts. We have cited only the figures of some of the departments, but the situation in other departments is not very different. Few posts are advertised and re-advertised, still fewer are filled. The proportion of faculty crunch is so enormous that mere sprinkling of one or two posts would hardly serve any purpose.
What is worst that the existing faculty, which is already reeling under excessive workload, is literally denied UGC stipulated time-bound promotions on one reason or the other. The applications of teachers seeking promotions have been languishing, and there seems to be little headway made. Most of these applications have not been screened as yet. Teachers who have been eligible for the promotion under Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) for the last two to three years are still clueless about their promotion. While UGC promises time-bound promotions, the delay invariably happens due to slow processing applications in the University. Except for some cases, most of the teachers of the University receive their due of promotions at least two-three years later than their date of eligibility. The delay in promotions has caused sense of disenchantment and frustration among the faculty members.
We urge upon you to take the matter of faculty-recruitment and promotion urgently.
Yours sincerely,
Akshaya Kumar, Manjit Singh, Md. Khalid and many others