By The Hindu Bureau
Copyright thehindu
The process of recruitment of teachers to various vacant positions in Anna University is proving to be quite long and arduous. The delay has forced the management to effect certain changes in the running of the institution, including reducing the number of post-graduate programmes.
Before the start of the academic year, the university temporarily suspended at least 20 post-graduate programmes where student enrolment dwindled to less than half of the sanctioned strength. This move, in effect, reduced the number of students at the post-graduate level, allowing the institution some wiggle space, said a professor who was unwilling to be named.
Functioning with barely two-thirds of its sanctioned strength for the past few years meant that Tamil Nadu’s premier technology university was forced to rejig resources. Anna University has a sanctioned strength of 988 faculty members, out of which nearly 400 positions have been vacant for the past few years. The last recruitment happened in 2023, when 134 teachers were selected.
To offset this shortage, 20 retired professors from Central and State universities have been recruited as Professors Emeritus and tasked with teaching core subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry to first-year students.
In addition, the university invited applications to recruit 40 Professors of Practice, mostly from the industry. They are likely to be handed emerging fields such as Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Nanotechnology, Cloud Computing, and Quantum Computing. Over a hundred applications have been received, the professor added.
These longstanding vacancies have directly affected Anna University’s performance at the QS World University Rankings and the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), experts say.
In February last year, the university had published an advertisement for the recruitment of 88 teachers and received about 3,000 applications in response. Earlier this year, the Teachers’ Recruitment Board, tasked with holding exams for the selection of teachers for various sectors, had organised a camp inviting subject experts from different parts of the country to draw up the question paper for this recruitment exam. However, the exam is yet to be scheduled. TRB officials were not available for comment.
J. Prakash, Registrar, said that at the recently held finance committee meeting, a resolution was passed, seeking to fill 200 more vacancies. It will be placed before the Syndicate next month. This time around, the procedure would be tweaked to enable the Teachers’ Recruitment Board to issue the advertisement, shortlist qualified applicants, hold the test, and release the rank list, Dr. Prakash added.
