Tech colleges find it difficult without PhDs

HYDERABAD: Engineering colleges are finding it difficult to get faculty with Ph.D. degrees for senior posts. The rules require professors and associate professors to have PhD degrees, while a post-graduate degree in engineering is sufficient for being appointed assistant professor. Since there are very few PhD holders, most affiliated engineering colleges have only a few professors on their rolls. For the same reason, posts of associate professor are being given to assistant professors with more than seven years teaching experience.

The college recommends the name of senior lecturers for promotion under the Career Advancement Scheme, and the university checks the track record of the candidate before giving its nod to formalise the promotion. According to Prof. Arkanti Krishnaiah, head of the mechanical department, Osmania Engineering College, the problem is twofold. There are not many colleges offering PhD in engineering in the state, except for OU and JNTU. Even here the number of admissions is just over 100. Second, few engineering students want to do research; most want a good job soon after B.Tech or post-graduation.

“A majority of candidates enrolling for PhD take up teaching jobs in engineering colleges after their post-graduation. In the teaching profession, a PhD is key in reaching higher posts and hence faculty from engineering colleges join the course,” he said.Chaitanya Bharati Institute of Technology chief placement officer N.L.N. Reddy said that lack of PhDs in the teaching profession was not confined to Telangana but was a problem all over the country.

“Telangana state has nearly 270 engineering colleges in which lakhs of students are studying. The teacher-student ratio is 1:15. There is a big requirement for teachers with PhDs, but not many are out there at present to take up the posts,” he said.

Salaries swell as colleges lose teachers to poaching:

There is serious competition among private engineering colleges scouting for candidates with PhD qualifications. Poaching occurs frequently with colleges vying with one another to get PhD holders. The pay packet goes up to nearly Rs 1.5 lakh per month which is almost equal to the salary of professors in state universities. According to Dr P. Narasimha Reddy, executive director, Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Techno-logy, colleges are offering jobs the moment a person submits his or her doctoral thesis.

“Colleges queue up to recruit him the moment he gets his PhD. Hence the hurry in offering the job,” he explained. According to Mr Reddy, PhD holders are already on the faculty of engineering colleges. An associate professor gets a salary in the range of Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000 per month and this will double once he gets his PhD. Private colleges have urged AICTE to relax the rules for recruitment. PhD should be required only for professors, they said. It should not be made mandatory for fresh recruitment of Associate Professors until more eligible candidates are available.