The University Grants Commission (UGC) has chosen to establish a uniform website to coordinate the appointment process in these universities because there are thousands of open positions for faculty members in 45 core universities, ranging from professors to assistant professors.
According to a senior UGC official, applicants can create profiles on the website and submit their applications immediately there. Currently, each university issues a unique call for applicants.
Aspirants won’t have to visit the websites of the 45 universities to learn about opportunities thanks to this website. They only need to click once to apply using their profile. The official stated that it would make the procedure clear and simple and that interviews would be managed by the appropriate departments. 23 IITs throughout the nation have utilised a similar appointment mechanism.
The timeframe, according to the official, won’t be restricted to core universities. It will currently only be for core universities. To serve as a platform for academic positions, we would eventually encourage IITs, IIMs, state universities, and private universities to post their job openings here, the official continued.
Out of the 18,956 sanctioned positions, 6,180 professor, associate professor, and assistant professor positions are empty in central universities, according to recent comments made by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in the Lok Sabha.
As of December 2022, there were 4,502 open positions in IITs out of the 11,170 sanctioned positions, while there were 493 open positions in IIMs out of the 1,566 faculty positions. “The process of vacancies occurring and being filled is ongoing. Central universities are independent organisations created in accordance with relevant Central Acts. According to their acts, statutes, rules, and UGC norms or recommendations, their statutory bodies create their recruitment procedure, Mr. Pradhan had previously stated.
He also stated that his Ministry had established a monthly monitoring mechanism for this and has instructed all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to fill the vacancies in a mission manner.
However, academics are closely monitoring this initiative to launch a shared website with scepticism. “In this, there are two problems. Acts of Parliament are used to establish central universities. The autonomy of these universities is being eliminated one step at a time by this government. Another step in that direction has been taken with this. The Acts of these central universities must be amended by the Center in order to implement a centralised appointment system. Therefore, the proposed system should not be implemented without the consent of Parliament and will not be. Since it is a way of centralising appointments, it will be unlawful. Second, we worry that the ruling party is attempting to rig faculty member appointments, according to Rajeev Kunwar of the Democratic Teachers Front at Delhi University.
As of December, there were 1,657 openings for OBC candidates, 578 for ST candidates, and 961 for SC candidates among the open positions. Similar to this, there are 643 and 301 seats designated for the physically challenged category and economically disadvantaged sectors, respectively.
