Indore: 3,000 vacancies in govt colleges await asst prof exam for occupants

Indore: Three years have passed but the wait for assistant professor exam continues as Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (MPPSC), which cancelled the selection process twice before citing reasons after reason, is lingering it on over yet another undisclosed administrative reason.  “There are some queries that need to be answered by department of higher education (DHE) which sent requirement of assistant professor to us. Once the queries are answered, we will release notification for assistant professor exam,” said MPPSC deputy secretary Vandna Vidya. Though Vidya was reluctant to disclose the queries, she signalled that notification could be released in December. The notification would carry all information pertaining to application forms, examination date and eligibility criteria.

The assistant professor exam for filling more than 3,000 seats lying vacant in government colleges across the state is long awaited. After a gap of 16 years, the MPPSC had invited applications for filling about 1,650 assistant professor’s posts in 2014 but the recruitment process was cancelled in September (2015) following some eligibility related issues. After that, the DHE had created more teaching posts which shot up to 2,371 posts in government colleges. These vacancies were again advertised last year by the MPPSC and exam was fixed on August 22. But the eligibility criteria decided for the post left thousands of PhD holders, who obtained their degrees before July 2009, disappointed as they were not eligible for the post.

This led to protests by them and on the directions of the state government, the MPPSC again cancelled exam for assistant professor’s post. The state government had also announced to conduct State Eligibility Test (SET) for the PhD holders who were not eligible for assistant professor’s post due to new recruitments norms fixed by the University Grants Commission. SET used to be held regularly in the state but it was discontinued about 20 years ago, for the reasons best known to powers that be. However, this never became an issue until MPPSC invited applications for assistant professor’s posts last year.

For assistant professor’s post, a candidate is required to either have NET qualification or should have taken PhD as per regulations-2009. SET qualified candidates are also eligible for the post of assistant professor only in the universities/ colleges situated in the state from where they have cleared their SET. Thousands of PhD holders in the state, who had obtained PhD prior to 2009, staged protests against the government stating that if SET would have been conducted regularly in the state, many of them could have become eligible for the posts. As pressure mounted on the government, it suspended assistant professor’s exam scheduled on August 22, last year stating that the same would be held after SET is conducted in the state.

SET was conducted in February and results were awaited announced on May 30. Six months have passed off for the SET results to be declared but the new date of assistant professor’s exam has not been declared as yet even as aspirants have been making a beeline to the MPPSC office for the exam.