Most PG depts without teachers & staff, lack infra

Nagpur: Even as Nagpur University (NU) has announced its first-ever entrance test for admissions to its postgraduate departments, most of them are functioning without full-time teachers and non-teaching staff. There is not even adequate infrastructure, as per its officials.
The entrance exam will be held on August 11 the results will be declared by August 17. The registration process will end on August 7 and admit cards would be distributed two days later.
NU’s move to hold an entrance exam came after it granted autonomy to all its departments in one go last year while ignoring the fact that they badly lacked the faculty and clerical staff. Even as the university is celebrating its centenary year few of the departments are working without a single approved teacher.
For autonomy, all departments individually needed to have approval from National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). But according to NU officials, since the university has already received the top grade, it would also be applicable for the departments.
NU officials said the new administration had flouted UGC’s rules and regulations while granting autonomy to its departments. “The university is heavily dependent on the contributory and clock hour basis (CHB) teachers for fulfilling its needs in absence of regular teachers in all its departments. They are also included in the Board of Studies (BOS) for drafting the syllabus in blatant violation of rules. For autonomy, full-time teachers are a must in every department,” they said.
Quoting a reply to a RTI query by senior activist Abhay Kolarkar, TOI in February had published that over 10 departments out of 34 were operating on the basis of just one regular teacher while some like Ambedkar Thoughts do not have even that privilege.
Few departments having just one teacher are Pali-Prakrit, fine arts, sociology, philosophy and Gandhian Thoughts. Some important departments like microbiology and statistics have just one teacher out of six sanctioned posts, while linguistics has nine vacant posts out of 10.
NU officials pointed out that all university departments and conducted colleges collectively had nearly 55% vacancy of teaching posts, which is adversely affecting their academic performance.
A head of an NU department told TOI that almost all the departments were suffering due to absence of good laboratories, library and equipment for holding practicals. “The classrooms are inadequate to accommodate students. The contributory or CHBs teachers would work only for 10 months in a year and leave after their contract ended. In such a situation, we might face difficulties in evaluation of papers, drafting new syllabus and preparing the scheme of examination,” he said.
# Total vacancies
Posts ----------- Prof ------- Asso prof ---------- Asst prof -------- Total
Sanctioned ---- 42 -------——-74 ------------------- 127 ------------ 243
Filled -------—- 9 ---------——25 ------------------- 69 --------------- 103
Vacant -------- 33 ----——---- 49 ------------------- 58 --------------- 140