A team from the A.P. Assistant Professors Screening Test Qualified Candidates Association met Ajeya Kallam, principal secretary to the Chief Minister, in Vijayawada on Friday to discuss issues regarding their interview and recruitment.
The delegation, led by association president Dr. D. Ravi Babu and general secretary Dr. K. Srinivasulu, informed Mr. Kallam that about 3,200 candidates were shortlisted after the screening test and an interview was pending.
For the first time, the recruitment process for the post of assistant professors for the 14 state universities in the State involved a screening test that was conducted by the APPSC.
About 22,000 had written the test that was held in April 2018, and around 3,200 had qualified. Since then, the interview has been pending, said Dr. Srinivasulu.
“It was supposed to be held in January this year, but for reasons unknown, it was not organised. Then, elections were declared and the MCC came into force. It is high time that the interviews are conducted and the recruitment process is completed,” he said.
“We discussed this issue with Mr. Kallam and he agreed to look into it,” Dr. Srinivasulu said.
In total, about 1,109 assistant professor posts have been sanctioned for the 14 universities, which included 371 for Andhra University.
Complicated issue
The issue of faculty recruitment gained prominence in recent times after the UGC issued a notice to all colleges, universities and deemed universities in the country to fill up their vacant faculty positions in the next six months.
The UGC directive has become a complicated issue in A.P., where a screening test has been completed and candidates shortlisted for interviews at the 14 State universities.
It now remains to be seen how the new YSRCP government handles the issue, as a lot will depend on the new education policy of the new government, experts said.
