Calcutta University has decided to take steps to appoint permanent teachers across departments because vacancies are posing a problem in conducting regular classes, the university’s registrar said on Thursday.

The syndicate, the university’s highest policy-making body, took the decision at a meeting on Tuesday.

About 52 per cent of teaching positions are vacant, said Sanatan Chattopadhyay, president of the Calcutta University Teachers’ Association.

CU registrar Debasis Das said: “We are gathering the details of vacancies so the positions can be filled. The students are suffering because of inadequate faculty strength.”

A section of teachers earlier held an agitation on the College Street campus, alleging that the teaching strength was inadequate and they were struggling to complete the syllabus.

CU has only 396 teachers against 835 sanctioned posts, they alleged.

Om Prakash Mishra, a Jadavpur University professor who is the state government’s nominee to the syndicate, said: “It was emphasised at the syndicate meeting that the recruitment process to fill the vacant teaching positions should be initiated. Over the years, the university has continued the practice of contractual appointments. But that is not the way. Permanent teaching position needs to be filled following the reservation rules.”

Metro reported on July 5 reported that the inadequate faculty strength of CU’s BTech programmes was not allowing most of the departments to get accredited by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA).

The NBA examines whether the departments are maintaining the standards set by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the apex regulatory body.

The university’s secretary of science and technology told Metro that one of the conditions for applying for accreditation is that each department must have a faculty-student ratio of 1:15.

But in seven out of 10 departments, the ratio is 1:20, Amit Roy, the secretary, said.

“The computer science and engineering department has seven teachers, though our sanctioned strength is 16. We have 160 students in the four-year BTech programme. Our ratio is 1:23. How can we apply for accreditation? The AICTE has been insisting on accreditation. But with this faculty strength, we don’t stand a chance,” a professor of the department said on Thursday.

Sanatan Chattopadhyay, a professor of the electronic science department, said around half of the teaching positions in his department were vacant.

In an advisory to state-aided universities in April 2024, the state government said that universities headed by an officiating vice-chancellor must take permission from the education department before making permanent appointments.

Will CU contact the department before starting the recruitment process? “First, let us gather the vacancy position. Then we will decide,” registrar Das told Metro.