Over 14,600 faculty positions are lying vacant in HEIs under central government: Education Ministry

"The institutions are taking measures to address faculty shortage in order to ensure that studies of students are not affected, which inter-alia, include engaging research scholars, contract, re-employed, adjunct and visiting faculty", Sarkar said.

Over 14,600 faculty positions are lying vacant in HEIs under central government: Education Ministry

The Ministry of Education has informed the Lok Sabha that over 14,600 faculty positions are vacant in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar in response to a written question stated that the ministry has directed all central higher education institutions to fill up the vacancies in a mission mode.

He said there are 14,606 faculty vacancies in HEIs under the ministry. So far, more than 6,000 posts of faculty and non-faculty have been filled. The vacancies arise due to retirement, resignation and additional requirements on account of enhanced students' strength.

"The institutions are taking measures to address faculty shortage in order to ensure that studies of students are not affected, which inter-alia, include engaging research scholars, contract, re-employed, adjunct and visiting faculty", Sarkar said.

The Minister further added that in order to bring all the educational institutions, universities and colleges under the NAAC system, the NAAC has very much reduced the fee structure for accreditation and assessment. However, they have also reduced the metrics and questions in the manual for the self-study report for the constituent college and affiliated colleges.

MoS Education further said that there are 34,734 colleges that are running under the NAAC accreditation system. However, the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 visualizes that all HEIs aim through their institutional development plans they can attain the highest level of accreditation over 15 years.