PhDs: Drop due to dearth of faculty to guide

Hyderabad: The numbers of PhDs coming out of universities in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are not encouraging, but academicians say the quality of education is not the reason why this is happening in the two Telugu states. According to C.R. Visweswara Rao, former vice-chancellor of Vikr-ama Simhapuri Unive-rsity in Andhra Prade-sh, faculty recruitments were not being done by the government in combined Andhra Pradesh. This is the same situation even after bifurcation too. Hence, there is a shortage of senior faculty to offer PhD guidance. As per UGC norms, only regular teachers can supervise the works of research scholars, he said.

“If we take the case of Osmania, the contract staff outnumbers the regular ones due to lack of recruitments for the last several years. Mass production of PhDs is not seen in Telu-gu states because there are not enough private universities, as in other states. Private varsities tend to give relaxations to candidates, a majority of whom go for PhD for ca-reer advancement and not for serious research work,” an academician said. Former Osmania vice chancellor Prof. S. Sat-yanarayana, who is now the in-charge VC for IIIT-Basar, said students are shying away from PhD study due to lesser job opportunities for those holding doctorate degrees. “A few research scholars from Maths, Chemistry and Science background are joining as contract lecturers in engineering colleges.”, as they are unable to get the desired job. During our time, a PhD holder used to get assistant professor job in a university. The situation is different now,” he said.