Over 10,000 faculty posts vacant in central universities, IITs, IIMs, govt tells Parliament

Proceedings underway in the Rajya Sabha | ANI

New Delhi: Over 10,000 faculty positions are vacant across central universities, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), education minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the Parliament Wednesday.

Of the total 10,814 vacancies, 6,535 are in central universities including IGNOU, 403 are in IIMs and 3,876 are in IITs, the minister said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

As per data shared by the Ministry of Education in 2019, there were 8,856 teaching positions across 23 IITs in the country of which 2,813 were lying vacant. The number has now gone up to 3,876 posts, the minister informed Wednesday.

Of the 1,148 sanctioned faculty in 20 IIMs, the number of vacant posts is 403, the government informed the Rajya Sabha. However, according to data shared by the education ministry early this year, nearly 74 per cent posts were lying vacant at IIMs.

In a previous reply to the Parliament in 2019, the ministry had informed that out of the total 17,092 sanctioned teaching posts in 40 central universities as of 1 April, 2018 — 5,606 teaching posts were lying vacant.

SC/ST/OBC professors

Keeping up with the trend of the previously existing ‘diversity deficit’, the number of SC/ST and OBC professors at IITs and IIMs remains below the standard reservation policy.

The Constitution mandates at least 15 per cent seats for SCs, 7.5 per cent for STs and 27 per cent for OBCs in government jobs.

The data shared in the Parliament shows that IIMs have only five ST professors, 27 SC professors and 45 OBC faculty members.

It further adds that IITs only have 32 professors under posts reserved for Schedule Tribes category, 183 professors under vacancies reserved for Schedule Caste category, and 462 professors under the OBC category.

In central universities, there are 576 ST professors, 1,282 SC professors, and 1,648 OBC professors.