Shortage of Andhra University teaching staff a serious problem

VISAKHAPATNAM: Ninety-year-old Andhra University (AU) is in a sorry state because of the acute shortage of faculty that it is facing. Professors, associate professors and assistant professors need to be recruited immediately to improve the quality of education offered by the university, so that it may compete with other private universities. The university has been sanctioned 950 teaching staff, but only 500 are employed at present, including 120 assistant professors who have been taken on as guest faculty on a contract basis.

The government has announced that new faculty members will be recruited for AU, in phases, but no one knows when that process will be completed. The government has sanctioned the recruitment of 281 faculty members in the first phase and 59 in the second phase. After the completion of both phases, there will still be 59 vacancies.

Due to the acute shortage of faculty, AU is not in a position to introduce new courses, and postgraduates have been struggling to conduct their research. The students of AU say that even the most popular departments, such as Chemistry and Pharmacy, are facing a faculty crisis because of which seats are remaining vacant. AU’s image has been on the decline because of various reasons including the faculty crisis and a paucity of funds. Students say that though the TD government has been saying that it will improve AU’s ranking, it has not done anything to the effect so far.  

Prof G. Nageswara Rao, vice-chancellor of AU, said that if everything went according to plan, then AU would get some new teaching faculty soon. He said that the recruitment process would be conducted in a transparent manner.