Bhubaneswar, Dec. 15: Higher education in the state has been hit because of large-scale vacancy of teachers at the seven state-run universities.

More than 400 teaching and 1,100 non-teaching posts are vacant.

At the Utkal University, of the 46 sanctioned posts of professors, 22 are lying vacant. At the professor level, 10 posts each are vacant at Berhampur and Sambalpur universities, 20 at Ravenshaw University, seven at Shree Jagannath Sanskrit University and two at the North Odisha University.

Higher education minister Pradeep Panigrahi today told the Assembly: "In the seven universities of the state, of the 141 sanctioned posts of professors, 72 are lying vacant. At the associate professor level, 133 posts are vacant, out of the 283 sanctioned posts. At the assistant professor level, 188 out of the sanctioned 551 posts remain vacant. The universities have their own statutes how to fill up the posts."

Utkal University vice-chancellor Ashok Das told The Telegraph: "The recruitment has been delayed due to certain anomalies in the procedure. We have written to the higher education department in this regard."

Das said: "As the recruitment involves a series of procedures, including screening and examination of the candidates, it takes a long time. We have recruited 82 posts at various levels."

Students have expressed their anger over the vacancies. Even governor S.C. Jamir had expressed concern over the less number of research activities at the university level.

The Congress's student wing, too, expressed concern over the vacancies.

Besides, the large-scale vacancies at the primary and upper primary level have also had a considerable impact on school education.

School and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra said that of 1,32,824 posts of teacher in primary and upper primary schools, 36,271 are lying vacant.