The nine-decade-old Andhra University is now in a state of flux, after the University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued a notice to all colleges, universities and deemed universities to fill up their vacant faculty positions in the next six months.
The situation for AU is even more precarious, as the sanction of ₹1,000 crore by the Central government under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) hinges on how fast the university fills up the vacant faculty positions. AU is among the 10 State universities that has been identified by the UGC for the RUSA grants and one of the pre-conditions for the sanction is filling up the vacant posts.
Staff crunch
The faculty-starved AU has been facing serious shortage of faculty since the last one decade. The faculty strength in almost all the departments has dwindled over the years and a few such as History, Social Work and several science departments are functioning with one or two permanent teachers now. Since there has been no major recruitment in the last 20 years, the faculty strength has come down from 1,200 to about 325.
Change of guard
It took more than three years for the previous TDP government to design the modalities for the recruitment. A rationalisation committee was formed and about 371 posts including that of 61 professors, 40 associate professors and 270 assistant professors were sanctioned. For the recruitment of assistant professors, the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) had also conducted a screening test and 3,000 candidates had qualified for the interview stage.
The recruitment to the vacant posts was just taking shape when the Model Code of Conduct came into force, halting the process. Now that the TDP had lost the elections and the YSRCP led by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has assumed the office, apprehensions are rife the recruitment process could be delayed further as the recruitment process depends on the education policy of the new government.
Modalities
Now, the big question is whether the new government and the new Education Minister, who is yet to take charge, will go ahead with the interview process of the 3,000 candidates who had qualified the screening test, or revert back to the old process of going ahead with the interview without the screening test.
“Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy, in the run-up to the elections, had promised to revert back to the old system. If that be the case, then what would happen to those who had qualified the screening test,” asked Arjunudu, president of A.P. Contract Teachers Association.
“We have to go ahead with the recruitment process, but need to wait for the new education policy to be announced,” said Vice-Chancellor G. Nageswara Rao.
Big task at hand
Meanwhile, time is running short for the university as the UGC has already set up deadlines for the recruitment process. As per deadlines, the vacant posts need to be identified and hosted onto the UGC portal https://nherc.in in the next 15 days and the AU needs to give its consent for filling up the posts in the next one month and advertisement should be issued in the next 15 days. The other proceedings include constitution of selection committee, applications must be scrutinised and interview letters sent to shortlisted candidates by the fourth month, interviews be conducted by the fifth month and final list of the selected candidates prepared and appointment letters be sent and uploaded on the NHERC portal by the end of the sixth month.
“There is a bit of confusion on how we go about it as we have already kick-started a recruitment process. It all now depends on the new government,” Mr. Nageswara Rao said.
