Two in five teaching jobs in prestigious Indian institutions vacant
By Deepti Rajan. Almost two in every 5 faculty seats in central universities in India are lying vacant, according to numbers from the Human Resources ministry. Out of a total of 16,542 faculty positions in India’s central universities, 6152 were lying vacant as of March end, according to a reply furnished by the ministry in response to a question by Rajya Sabha MP Shyamal Chakraborty. Chakraborty had wondered if there was a ‘huge shortage’ of faculty in central government universities. Central government universities are funded directly by the Centre, and comprise of some of the most prestigious in India, including the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science, Bombay-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the most well-known of all, the IITs and the IIMs. In all, there are 40 such universities. By default, the President of India is the Chancellor of all such universities. More...