Delay in recruitment of lecturers places Anna University in a troublesome spot

The means of recruitment of lecturers to numerous vacant positions in Anna University is proving to be fairly lengthy and arduous. The delay has pressured the administration to impact sure adjustments within the operating of the establishment, together with decreasing the variety of post-graduate programmes.

Before the beginning of the educational yr, the college briefly suspended not less than 20 post-graduate programmes the place pupil enrolment dwindled to lower than half of the sanctioned power. This transfer, in impact, diminished the variety of college students on the post-graduate degree, permitting the establishment some wiggle area, mentioned a professor who was unwilling to be named.

Functioning with barely two-thirds of its sanctioned power for the previous few years meant that Tamil Nadu’s premier expertise college was pressured to rejig assets. Anna University has a sanctioned power of 988 school members, out of which almost 400 positions have been vacant for the previous few years. The final recruitment occurred in 2023, when 134 lecturers had been chosen.

To offset this scarcity, 20 retired professors from Central and State universities have been recruited as Professors Emeritus and tasked with educating core topics similar to Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry to first-year college students.

In addition, the college invited functions to recruit 40 Professors of Practice, largely from the business. They are prone to be handed rising fields similar to Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Nanotechnology, Cloud Computing, and Quantum Computing. Over 100 functions have been acquired, the professor added.

These longstanding vacancies have instantly affected Anna University’s efficiency on the QS World University Rankings and the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), specialists say.

In February final yr, the college had printed an commercial for the recruitment of 88 lecturers and acquired about 3,000 functions in response. Earlier this yr, the Teachers’ Recruitment Board, tasked with holding exams for the number of lecturers for numerous sectors, had organised a camp inviting topic specialists from totally different components of the nation to attract up the query paper for this recruitment examination. However, the examination is but to be scheduled. TRB officers weren’t accessible for remark.

J. Prakash, Registrar, mentioned that on the lately held finance committee assembly, a decision was handed, searching for to fill 200 extra vacancies. It can be positioned earlier than the Syndicate subsequent month. This time round, the process could be tweaked to allow the Teachers’ Recruitment Board to subject the commercial, shortlist certified candidates, maintain the check, and launch the rank listing, Dr. Prakash added.