The Sambalpur University (SU), a premier institution of the western Odisha, is reeling under staff crunch. As a result, many meritorious students are not interested to take admission in the university and are rather going to other universities of the State and outside. Staff shortage has emerged its major handicap and the students have to bear the brunt of it.
As per information, the sanctioned strength of the university comprises 26 professors, 46 readers and 80 lecturers. But most of the departments are running short of staff that lends a poor image to the university all over the nation. Even students coming from outside the State for taking admission here are turning away, knowing the staff position and study culture.Presently, posts of 17 professors, 20 readers and 18 lecturers are lying vacant in spite of repeated demands from citizens, students, guardians and political persons.“The vacancies do nothing but diminish the academic activities,” opined Nihal Singh, a trade union leader, calling for immediate step to fill the vacancy of manpower.
In important departments of Physics and Chemistry, the situation is the worst. In the department of Chemistry, only there are two readers and seven lecturers against the sanctioned strength of two professors, three readers and eight lecturers. Similarly, not a single reader is there in the departments of Physics, Computer Science and Electronics. In life Science, only three readers and eight lecturers are there against three professors, five readers and nine lecturers.
Almost all the departments of the university face the same fate. Departments in humanities like English, Odia and History etc also have insufficient staff.When the fate of the university is such, the colleges affiliated to it face a more precarious situation and the successive Vice Chancellors (VCs) have rather preferred to avoid the issue than taking any step to fill the vacancies with utmost priority.