JNTU-H colleges in mad rush to fill 1,500 faculty vacancies over next few days

HYDERABAD: The technical colleges under Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H) seems to have acute faculty shortage as colleges try hard to fill about 1,500 teaching posts in the next couple of days.
To speed up the process, the varsity is acting as facilitator and has asked the colleges to conduct interviews in varsity itself and has appointed a nominee on their behalf to represent on the selection committee.
"If a nominee from the varsity is to visit a college and be part of the selection committee, they can cover only two colleges in a single day. To speed up the process, we have asked the colleges to conduct interviews on the varsity campus," said N Yadaiah, registrar of JNTU-H.
On May 19, JNTU-H issued deficiency report to about 260 colleges and asked them to upload compliance report by May 29. The varsity also said that colleges lacking in faculty, laboratory and other facilities, could appeal online within 10 days from the date of issue of the report. They made it clear that only minor deficiencies such as one or two teaching staff shortage will be entertained. However, to everyone's surprise, colleges have gone ahead and requested for recruitment of 28 faculty members in a single branch.
When asked why the varsity is allowing colleges to recruit faculty on large scale, the registrar said: "If we don't give them a chance to rectify the deficiency, they will again move the court. Instead, we are giving them last chance. However, the appellate committee will make a note of it and this will definitely have an impact on affiliation."
He further added that even if a college has five percent of faculty seats vacant, the number would easily reach 1500 as there are about 300 colleges under JNTU-H.
"Not having required number of faculty is definitely against the varsity rule, but even if we assume that each college has recruited about five percent faculty less, the number would easily add up to 1500. So, we are not actually surprised with the actual figure," said Yadaiah.
According to the circular released by JNTU-H, the interviews will be conducted on Friday and Saturday at the respective departments in the varsity.
Once colleges upload compliance report, the varsity will be granting affiliation and will release a list so that students can go ahead with admissions.