In the latest round of the long-running saga over vacant teaching posts in India’s central universities, a public clash has broken out between Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge. The conflict on social media is symptomatic of a deeper crisis affecting the country’s higher education institutions.

Citing data from a recent Right to Information (RTI) reply to Bihar-based social activist Kanhaiya Kumar, Kharge blamed the Narendra Modi government for neglecting vacancies in 46 central universities and leaving the largest number of unfilled posts in the Scheduled Caste (SC) accused of possessing it. , Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories.

In a post on ST, 40.3 percent; and OBC, 41.8 percent. Looking at General Category positions, only 15.4 percent of sanctioned positions were vacant.

Pradhan was quick to respond and claimed that under the previous Congress-led central government, the vacancy rate was even higher at 37 per cent, with 57 per cent of SC posts, 63 per cent of ST posts and 60 per cent of OBC posts going unfilled. While both leaders pointed to political sides, their conflict underlined the urgency of a problem that has only gotten worse over time.

Central universities structure their teaching staff at three hierarchical levels: professor, associate professor and assistant professor. Non-teaching positions are divided into Group A, Group B and Group C. According to RTI data, around 55 percent of the 2,540 approved professorship posts remain vacant, amounting to 1,396 vacancies. Assistant professors have a lower vacancy rate; There are only 15.7 percent of open positions; However, there is a significant gap in associate professor positions; More than 37 percent (1,909 of 5,102) are vacant.

Of the 35,640 approved non-teaching positions, 47.4 percent (16,892) remain unfilled. Group A positions, which include critical administrative positions such as registrar, exam controller and public relations officer, have a vacancy rate of 40.3 percent. Nearly 40 percent of positions are vacant in Group B, which includes positions such as personal assistants and property clerks, while Group C, which includes positions such as stenographers and library assistants, faces the highest shortage at 50.45 percent.

State-by-state analysis highlights a stark disparity: Odisha’s central universities report the highest vacancy rate in teaching positions, with 65 per cent of posts unfilled. Other regions with significant shortages include Madhya Pradesh, Tripura and Delhi, where more than a third of teaching positions are vacant. In contrast, states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra have managed to keep vacancy rates below 13 percent, indicating relatively better staffing levels.

At the university-specific level, Odisha Central University stands out with the most serious deficiencies. Of the 154 approved positions, 101 remained vacant. Other universities struggling with high vacancy rates include Dr Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, University of Delhi and Allahabad University, with more than 40 per cent of faculty positions each remaining unfilled. In Delhi University alone, 747 (43.4 percent) out of 1,720 faculty posts are vacant.

However, the good news is that vacancies are decreasing. In 2017, the education ministry’s response to a question in the Lok Sabha highlighted that out of 16,217 approved teaching posts in central universities, 6,042 (about 37 per cent) were vacant. Reserved categories fared even worse: 57 percent of SC, 63 percent of ST and 60 percent of OBC posts remained unfilled.

The persistent gap raises critical questions. Why do these vacancies persist and what structural problems prevent their resolution? Pradhan attributes the delay to the complex and continuous nature of the recruitment process and highlighted that 6,890 teaching posts have been filled in the last two years. Of these, a significant number of recruits came from reserved categories: 939 from SC, 464 from ST and 1,535 from OBC groups.

The minister argues that the government is making efforts to plug these gaps, citing the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teaching Posts) Act, 2019 as a key legislative measure to ensure representation of underprivileged communities.

M. Jagadesh Kumar, chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), shared a similar sentiment, telling INDIA TODAY that the recruitment process is “ongoing and challenging” and that universities often struggle to attract candidates who meet the high standards required for faculty positions. In May 2023, UGC launched a portal called CU-Chayan to ensure that all vacancies are advertised by universities on a single platform.

Although these efforts to recruit faculty have produced some results, structural inadequacies continue to impede progress. Reasons cited include the autonomous status of central universities, which limits direct government intervention in recruitment, as well as difficulties in attracting qualified candidates to remote or temporary campuses. Additionally, some universities rely on temporary or contract faculty to fill gaps; critics argue that this practice undermines the quality of teaching and research at these institutions.

The situation for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category is particularly bleak despite the reservation policy introduced in 2019. Although the Constitution mandates that 10 per cent of faculty positions in central universities be reserved for EWS candidates, RTI data shows only 4.9 per cent. A percentage of these posts are actually filled.

Even more troubling, more than 71 percent of EWS teaching positions are vacant. Of the 35 central universities with EWS-approved posts, 30 did not fill a single associate professor or professor post under this category, including major universities such as Delhi University, Allahabad University and Banaras Hindu University.

This glaring omission stems from a policy conflict between the UGC and the Department of Personnel, Public Complaints and Pensions. While the ministry’s guidelines limit annual family income to Rs 8 lakh for EWS eligibility, the UGC requires candidates applying for professor and associate professor posts to have at least eight years of experience as assistant professors; this is a qualification that is likely to take their revenue to over Rs 8 crore. lakh threshold. This misalignment effectively disqualifies many qualified EWS candidates, revealing a structural flaw that thwarts the very purpose of reservation and leaves core teaching positions vacant.

The ongoing crisis in India’s central universities points to a larger systemic problem beyond the numbers. Without structural reforms to facilitate and accelerate recruitment and address administrative barriers that prevent qualified candidates from attending higher education levels, central universities risk perpetuating a cycle of exclusion and inefficiency.

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