Presidency University is unable to make any appointment to four posts of distinguished chair professor because the state government is yet to make its stand clear on the retirement age.

Earlier this year, the university had sought to know from the higher education department whether distinguished chair professors would retire at 62, like other teachers of the institution.

“The government is yet to respond,” a Presidency official said. “We are expecting a reply soon. Once it comes, we will start the recruitment process.”

The four vacant posts are Subhas Chandra Bose Distinguished Chair Professor in Economics, Political Science and History; Nazrul Islam Distinguished Chair Professor in Inter-cultural Dialogue and Peace Studies; Swami Vivekananda Distinguished Chair Professor in Philosophy; and Acharya Jagadis Chandra Bose Distinguished Chair Professor in Natural Sciences.

Presidency now has only one distinguished chair professor — Swapan Chakravorty. He had joined the university as Rabindranath Tagore Distinguished Chair Professor in Literature and Cultural Studies in March 2015 and is due to retire next year.

The state government had in 2012 sanctioned five posts of distinguished chair professor.

In 2014, the higher education department had informed the university that a distinguished chair professor would hold the post for five years or till she or he turned 65, whichever was earlier.

The present confusion stems from the government’s decision to fix the retirement age of university teachers at 62.

In November 2016, the government had scrapped a provision that allowed the state universities to re-employ retired “exceptional” teachers following complaints that a number of undeserving teachers were having their tenure extended.

While scrapping the provision, the government had set the retirement age of all university teachers at 62. An amendment was brought in last year to give effect to the change.

The earlier retirement age was 60, after which an “exceptional” teacher could be reappointed for up to five years.

The secretary of the Presidency Alumni Association, Bivas Chaudhuri, said the university could attract bright students only if it had “marquee” professors.

“A student is drawn towards an institute when it boasts marquee professors. The posts were created with this in mind. Presidency these days is faced with situations such as seats remaining vacant because it lacks eminent teachers. The authorities should take steps to fill up the vacant posts of distinguished chair professor at the earliest,” Chaudhuri said.

Last year, 300 seats had remained vacant at Presidency at the undergraduate and the postgraduate levels, triggering protests.

This year the university had held several rounds of counselling and freed up seats reserved for Schedules Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class candidates to minimise the number of vacant seats.