LIT woes may not end after adding 17 profs

Nagpur: In continuation of TOI’s expose of staffing imbalance at Laxminarayan Institute of Technology (LIT), investigation into workload as per its syllabus reveal the Nagpur University (NU) allegedly advertised some positions even though they were not proposed by the institute because of insufficient workload. Of the 17 posts okayed by the government, more allocation was insisted in the core area of chemical engineering, a course which makes LIT a rare institution in the country.
Adding to sufficient numbers of teachers for chemistry, the NU has advertised a professor’s post for which acting registrar Neeraj Khaty is a front-runner. As per syllabus and LIT’s need, NU should have mentioned the specialization ‘Applied Organic Chemistry’ which doesn’t have a specialist teacher right now. The LIT already has enough teachers for the subject ‘Applied Physical Chemistry’ which Khaty also teaches.

Ironically, chemistry falls under general group at LIT and vacancy or recruitment for it wouldn’t affect its National Board of Accreditation (NBA) rating. Chemical engineering needs at least 15 teachers as per the AICTE norm of 1:20 ratio. But, it has just 12 sanctioned positions while only five are currently in-service. The three advertised positions would take the faculty strength to eight. The 50% deficiency would again leave LIT ineligible for NBA assessment.

Being aware of LIT’s teaching requirements, the director had not included the chemistry professor’s post in the proposal after the government okayed filling up of 17 posts following orders of Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court in January. Had NU mentioned the specialization in the advertisement, it would have ruled out Khaty’s candidature.

According to the syllabus, inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry are taught in the first semester while physical chemistry is taught in second and third semesters. The workload (theory+practicals) for first semester is 12 hours per week combined for two papers while it is six hours per week for a single paper each in the next two semesters.

As per UGC norms, a week’s workload for an assistant professor is 16 hours, 14 hours for associate professor and 14 hours for professor. Hence, at a time when first and third semesters are in session, the workload doesn’t cross 18 hours per week against the capacity of 60 hours for chemistry as four teachers are working.

Following Khaty’s imminent appointment as professor, the total teaching capacity in chemistry would increase by 14 hours. In second semester, the fours teachers have only six hours of workload per week.

Similarly, physics, maths and general engineering have sufficient teachers against the workload assigned to them. Total 14 teachers are working for these “light” subjects in terms of workload while the chemical engineering has only six teachers for six semesters comprising 450 students at a time. In other words, 44% teachers of the 31 currently in-service are assigned the first and third semesters while some of them don’t have any workload in the second semester.

The imbalance becomes even more complex and beyond comprehension when the six chemical technology specializations — food technology, petrochemical technology, oil technology, surface coating, pulp & paper, plastic & polymer — are considered. Different number of posts are sanctioned for teaching same number of students in each of them.

Vice-chancellor SP Kane, acting registrar Khaty, LIT director Raju Mankar are mum on the issue despite this correspondent visiting their offices for comment. TOI had even mailed them a detailed questionnaire but they refused to comment.