Tamil Nadu to prioritise teacher recruitment in high-enrollment university courses

Higher Education Dept. will prioritise recruiting teachers to courses with high student enrolment

The Tamil Nadu Higher Education Department has sought department-wise vacancy lists from all State-run universities along with teacher-student ratios, as it plans to prioritise filling positions in programmes with high student enrolment, Higher Education Secretary Dheeraj Kumar announced at the University of Madras Senate meeting.

The Department will focus on addressing crucial shortages in departments with large student numbers through regular faculty intake, Mr. Kumar clarified in response to queries raised by professors at the Senate meeting that he chaired. "The government has policy clarity now, and this will be done. We want to give priority to such departments so that when there are crucial shortages, they get addressed immediately through regular faculty intake," he said.

Acute faculty shortage at University of Madras

S.S. Sundaram, Head, Department of History, highlighted the severity of the staffing crisis, revealing that the 170-year-old university had a sanctioned strength of 540 faculty members, but less than 175 were employed. No recruitment drive was held to fill up the vacancies for the past 12 years and more than 20 departments were functioning with a single faculty member, he stated.

University faces financial strain after corpus depletion

V. Chandra Kumar, Head, Department of Library and Information Science, pointed out that the university had presented a deficit budget to the Senate. He disclosed that ₹77 crore had been pulled out of its corpus fund earlier this year to settle the terminal benefits of retired employees, thereby diminishing the fund to a little over ₹300 crore. He sought additionality grant from the government to meet day-to-day expenses of salary and pension benefits of the staff and faculty.

In response, the Higher Education Secretary said the UoM, as an autonomous body, should explore avenues to increase its income. He invited the members to write to the Finance Officer or the Registrar with ideas. In case of a shortfall, however, the government will come forward to solve it, he assured.

C. Murugan, Head, Department of Sanskrit, sought a one-time grant of ₹500 crore to bail the University out of its financial hardships.

Career Advancement Scheme delays raised

Mr. Murugan also raised the issue of inordinate delay in extending benefits of the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) to teachers in universities. E. Murugan, Head, Department of Physical Chemistry, described the CAS approval process as "redundant", noting that the files go through several stages of approval even though the competent authorities have stamped them.

The Higher Education Secretary said past experiences were fraught with orders of recovery, which weren't pleasant for either side. He said that the process has begun in right earnest and will be expedited.

S. Santhosh Baboo, Principal, DG Vaishnav College, wanted the university to expedite the process of extending affiliation to colleges. D. Anand, Associate Professor, Department of Botany, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, wanted the government to implement the Tamil Nadu Assured Pension Scheme soon and place a proposal to the effect in the next Syndicate meeting.

Source: The Hindu