The special committee, comprising former Vice-Chancellors, constituted by the State government to devise a plan for the recruitment of faculty members in the 14 government-run universities in the State, has submitted a report recommending the selection of professors, associate professors, and assistant professors through a common entrance test (CET).
The CET may be independently conducted by a special body, or the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) may be entrusted with the task of hosting the examination, said HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao.
“We are working out the modalities. Applications will be invited through a notification, and the selection will be based on the rank obtained in the examination,” he told The Hindu .
All the State-run universities, including those that came up in the recent times such as the Krishna University and the Rayalaseema University and the older ones such as the Andhra University and the Acharya Nagarjuna University, have been facing severe faculty shortage.
There has been no major recruitment initiative despite many faculty members attaining superannuation over the last one decade.
Things have been really bad for the 90-year-old Andhra University, the oldest institution in the State.
The strength has gone down from 45 to 7 in the Department of Physics. The iconic History Department has just one permanent faculty member over its sanctioned strength of 18. The Chemistry Department, which at one time had a strong strength of 15, has only one permanent faculty member as on date.
In this background, the sanction of 1,104 teachers for the 14 universities is being viewed as a blessing.
Not sufficient
However, according to a senior professor in Andhra University, the sanction of 281 teachers is not sufficient.
“The required strength is about 1,200 and the university has been managing with only about 400 permanent teaching staff since the last one decade. We need at least 600 teachers to ensure a good working model,” he said.
According to Mr. Srinivasa Rao, the government has a proposal to sanction 520 posts for Andhra University. In the first phase, 281 teachers will be recruited.
Welcoming the decision of recruiting teachers through a common entrance test, Vice-Chancellor in charge of AU E.A. Narayana said: “We can expect quality as merit will be filtered through the CET.” Another senior professor pointed out that “recommendation candidates” would not find a place as the best would qualify.
The aim
Though the CET will be held by a special body or the APPSC, the interview part will be left to the universities.
Interview process and final selection will be left to the respective universities
Ganta Srinivasa Rao
HRD Minister
