Utkal University

Bhubaneswar. April 17: The state government today sanctioned 161 teaching posts in six government-run universities. This includes 99 posts for lecturers, 31 professors and 31 readers .

Of the total sanctioned positions, 61 have been assigned to Ravenshaw University in Cuttack and 51 to Utkal University in Bhubaneswar.

Similarly, Berhampur University and North Odisha University in Baripada have been accorded permission for filling up of 15 teaching posts each. The Fakir Mohan University in Balasore has been sanctioned 11 posts leaving nine others for the Shree Jagannath Sanskrit Viswavidyalaya in Puri.

The decision, which has also been approved by the finance department, was taken by a high-power committee constituted by the department of higher education to review teaching vacancy crisis in government institutions. The committee took into consideration the number of sanctioned posts, present faculty position and strength of students.

Reacting to the news, vice-chancellor of Ravenshaw University B.C. Tripathy said it was “not true”. “Not a single post has been sanctioned for us. Ravenshaw had 252 sanctioned teaching posts when it was a college. However, in 2006, when it was elevated to the status of a university, it was reduced to 153 for reasons best known to the government,” he said.

Tripathy alleged that a proposal for sanctioning 155 additional teaching posts has been pending with the government since long.

“Government officials told us that they could, at best, sanction 100 more posts but even that promise is yet to be fulfilled. We have recently filled up some vacant posts but still studies are being affected,” he said, adding that nearly 45 faculty posts are lying vacant at present.

Chairman of Utkal University’s PG Council Prafulla Kumar Mishra said the government’s decision would not serve any purpose as less than half of the required posts had been sanctioned.

“We have more than 100 vacancies and the burden on the existing teaching staff is immense. Some of them will retire in a few months and no one knows how long fresh appointments will take. We are being forced to close down some of the self-financing and innovative courses because of staff crisis,” he said.

The premier varsity has 27 postgraduate departments, each of them offering specialisation papers. However, most of the papers have now been suspended in the wake of the vacancy crisis.

Mishra said the teacher requirement at Utkal would increase three-fold as the authorities have decided to introduce a choice-based credit system from the coming academic session.

“Syllabus overhaul and teaching methods are imperative to compete with other national-level universities. But how can we strive for academic excellence without teachers? With a new session in the offing, this teacher shortage problem might lead to a major agitation,” he added.