First-year undergraduate engineering students at National Institute of Technology (NIT), whose session begins on Monday, can look forward to a great academic year as the administration has selected 28 assistant professors.

The step to improve the student-teacher ratio was taken after a year-long exercise. NIT Patna director Asok De said: “Based on the interview of candidates who appeared for the selection process, NIT Patna chose 28 assistant professors. The results were declared on Saturday.”

Selected candidates would be sent call letters so that they can join the institute before September 16. The institute was facing a major teacher shortfall.

With the appointment of 28 assistant professors the teachers’ strength would now rise to 115. The institute also plans to make large-scale appointments of associate professors and professors.

De said: “The process for recruiting associate professors and professors is under way and would be completed soon.” Sources said last year, the ministry of human resource development had given its nod for recruitment of 173 faculty positions, including 31 additional posts.

The appointment would bring relief to many engineering branches running with severe staff crunch.

NIT sources said 14 teachers’ posts are lying vacant in the civil department, 15 in the computer science department, 12 in the electronics department, and 12 more in the electrical department. To meet the shortfall, the institute was depending on retired teachers and faculty from other institutes.

A mechanical engineering branch student said on condition of anonymity: “Retired teachers used to teach us because of a faculty crunch at NIT. Many of them were so old that their voice was not audible in class. Teachers from other institutes who taught us were not clear about their concept. But now things would improve.”

New appointments have taken place for all engineering branches except architecture. For the post of assistant professor, the institute received applications from across the country.

The selected candidates are from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and other states.

The selection was done on the basis of interviews carried out by the selection committee, headed by NIT Patna director, and other members who are subject experts from premier institutions, visitor nominee (President nominee), the board of governors members and others.

NIT Patna has also announced its convocation date, September 30. Former President APJ Abdul Kalam would be the chief guest and former IIT- Chennai director and former All India Council for Technical Education chairman R. Natarajan the guest of honour. Around 520 students including 11 gold medallists would receive their degree at a function at SK Memorial Hall.