Many senior professors from the public universities in the State such as Andhra University, Acharya Nagarjuna University and SV University, who are set to retire this year or the next year, on attaining 62 years, feel that the retirement age should be extended to 65 years.
It is learnt that a group of professors will be meeting the Minister for Education and the Chief Minister, shortly, to impress upon the idea.
Speaking to The Hindu , a senior professor from AU, said that UGC has already set the retirement age limit to 65 years and about 18 States in the country have already implemented it.
It may be remembered that the retirement age was enhanced from 60 to 62 years, by the earlier Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
As of now the sanctioned strength for the 13-odd public universities in the State is around 10,000, but the there are only about 1,000 to 1,200 full time professors.
The required strength for Andhra University, the oldest university in the State, is around 1,200, but the strength is less than 300.
As it is there is a shortage of senior and experienced manpower and this year about 100 senior professors will be superannuating. This will further bring down the strength, said a senior professor from ANU.
The argument that enhancing the retirement age limit for existing senior professors will dim the chances for new recruits, does not hold water, as there is a huge dearth of manpower, across all universities, said another senior professor from AU.
Moreover, if all senior professors go, who will groom the new recruits. Moreover, all government departments such as UGC, DST, CSIR or Dept of DAE, allot projects on the strength of senior professors.
And the presence of senior professors not only enhances the possibility of projects, but also increases the rating of the university, he added.
Out of all projects that a department gets, about 15% goes into the kitty of the university.
The absence of senior professors will not only dim the chances of good rating, but will also reduce the chances of getting good projects and consultancy, said a professor from SVU, who is scheduled to retire, in this year.
The professors feel that in the USA, the retirement age for a professor is 70, and A.P. should at least follow the UGC guidelines by enhancing it to 65 years.
