Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) has nearly 267 teaching posts that are without government sanction.
The university had admitted in its reply to an application filed under the Right to Information Act that the faculty positions that failed to receive government concurrence were not limited to its School of Engineering in Thrikkakara and Cochin University College of Engineering in Kuttanad.
Teachers in both the institutions were denied promotion and other benefits by the university authorities on grounds that they come under the self-financing stream. The university had even informed the Kerala High Court in a case related to denial of benefits under the career advancement scheme that there was no financial assistance from the government for teachers appointed in this stream.
As per the Cochin University Act, the syndicate has the powers to create faculty posts based on the work load in each department. The university authorities should have later got it ratified by the government but no concrete efforts were made to regularise these teaching posts.
Out of the 267 teaching posts created without government concurrence, 150 positions are in School of Engineering while Cochin University College of Engineering, Kuttanad, has 105 posts. The Department of Computer Applications has three posts without government sanction while the School of Legal Studies has nine positions.
The number of lecturer posts out of the 150 in School of Engineering is 109 while there are 29 reader and 12 professor posts. At the Cochin University College of Engineering, Kuttanad, there are 74 lecturer posts, 22 reader and nine professor positions. There are two lecturer vacancies in the Department of Computer Applications while the School of Legal Studies has eight lecturer posts.
The university also said that salary and allowances of those teachers were met from the fund generated from the fee collected by the students, as the positions had not received concurrence from the government.
Cusat has also created 157 non-teaching posts since 1990. The pay and allowances of non-teaching posts that are without government concurrence were met from the fund generated in self-financing institutions in which they work.
