India’s plans for expansion of institutions of higher education appear to have hit a roadblock in the form of acute shortage of faculty. Sample this: seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have faculty shortage of 882, 60 teaching posts are vacant in six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), 1,820 teaching posts are lying vacant in 18 central Universities, 727 teaching posts are vacant in 74 of 231 state universities.
Now, the HRD ministry plans to set up 30 Central universities, including 14 world-class universities, eight Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), seven Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), 20 Indian Institutes of Information and Technology (IIITs), three Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research during the 11th five-year plan.
But over the years, most institutions of higher education have not been able to prevent the migration of quality teachers either to institutions run by private corporate houses or countries abroad. This is mainly because salary packages offered in such cases are much more than what government-run institutions can afford. To make matter worse, as the HRD ministry acknowledged before a Parliamentary standing committee, there is “lack of interest among talented youth in taking up teaching in universities†and they are “weaned away by the less demanding yet more lucrative career optionsâ€.
As a solution to the acute shortage of quality teachers, the ministry has raised the age of superannuation from 62 to 65 years in respect of teachers of Centrally funded technical and higher educational institutions under its purview, appointed a pay review committee and announced number of programme which aim at providing incentives to teachers for taking up research and further education. “The most elite government services we have is the IAS. No way can the pay review panel recommend more salary for faculty than what an IAS officer gets. But we are not sure that even if teachers are offered more salary than IAS officers, it can match the packages offered by private sector and the countries abroad,†said a senior HRD official.
MoS (higher education), Ms D Purandeswari, conceded that pay packages that are being offered by corporate houses are so huge that people don’t want to come to higher education or pursue PhDs.
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