While the Government is setting up many universities for expansion of higher education in the State, shortage of faculty members is affecting research and teaching quality.
Not a single professor has been posted in Koraput’s Central University which has 14 departments and at least 776 students have been enrolled in PG, MPhil and PhD courses.
But all the posts in the rank of professor and associate professor are lying vacant in the university, which is running with only 18 regular assistant professors and a few guest faculties.
The condition is similar in the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) where only two lecturers have been appointed out of 25 sanctioned faculty posts.
Sources said that the posts for assistant and associate professor could not be created in the university as it does not meet the UGC and AICTE guidelines.
Similarly, there are 630 sanctioned teachers’ posts in Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) out of which 213 posts are lying vacant. The shortage of faculties in University of Culture and Utkal Sangeet College is hitting education as well.
There are 952 sanctioned faculty posts including 141 professors in Utkal University, Sambalpur University, Berhampur University, Ravenshaw University, Fakir Mohan University, North Odisha University and Shree Jagannath Sanskrit University. But, 526 faculties, including 67 professors, have been appointed in those varsities.
The shortage of faculties in Government medical colleges has also been a matter of concern. The admission in PG courses has been closed in Dr Abhin Chandra Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, State’s top most homeopathic medical college, in the past three years.
Total 115 faculty posts are vacant in Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) in Burla. Although, the posts were filled in Ravenshaw University, following a report of irregularity in recruitment process, now 150 posts are vacant in the same university.
The number of faculties is not adequate in Ramadevi, GM and Khalikote universities and professors are required in the newly set up varsities, but the authorities failed to spell out about the move on future recruitment, sources said.