Maharashtra’s higher education system faces a significant challenge with approximately 11,000 faculty posts vacant across universities and colleges. State education officials blame recruitment delays on past and present governors, alongside finance and planning departments. Many positions have remained unfilled for over a decade.
Key Vacancies and Impact
The vacancies represent about one-third of the estimated 31,000 government-supported faculty positions in 1,100 aided institutions. Over 5,000 posts became vacant due to retirements between 2017 and 2023. This teacher shortage impacts educational quality.
The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) recently highlighted this issue. Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), Maharashtra’s top state university, dropped places due to its poor student-faculty ratio. Beyond SPPU and the University of Mumbai, no other non-agriculture university in the state ranks in NIRF.
Blame Directed at Governors
Chandrakant Patil’s education department officials faulted former Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan. He insisted on overhauling teacher hiring. This included independent commission recruitment, elaborate applicant scoring, and reduced interview weightage. The University Grants Commission (UGC) rejected the independent commission proposal, stating universities should conduct their own recruitments.
Officials also criticized current Governor Acharya Devrat, ex-officio chancellor of state universities. They cited his alleged lack of interest in advancing recruitment. However, Governor Devrat recently met with university vice-chancellors to re-issue ads for teacher appointments. Officials hope the process restarts within two weeks.
Finance Department’s Role and State Finances
Despite Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s intervention, the state finance and planning departments delayed approving recruitment. They were hesitant even for 659 university department posts slated for the first hiring phase.
The finance department initially agreed only to fill 5,000 retiree posts. Officials stated the department viewed retirements as expense reductions, reluctant to re-add costs. Calculating workload under new National Education Policy (NEP) guidelines also presented a hurdle. Workload can only be fully determined after three years. The Chief Minister proposed using student enrollment figures to estimate teacher numbers.
The state’s financial strain contributes to recruitment delays. Officials cited the poll-time ‘Ladki Bahin’ scheme, providing Rs 1,500 monthly to poor women. This cash transfer scheme costs the state approximately Rs 36,000 crore annually. Reduced Goods and Services Tax (GST) receipts further strain the exchequer. Officials warned persistent financial issues could cause universities to decline.
New Recruitment Norms and Concerns
The state government adopted Raj Bhavan suggestions, issuing new norms for university teacher recruitment. These norms reduced interview weightage from 40% to 25%, a compromise from the governor’s office demand of 20%. New stringent parameters include higher points for graduates of national importance institutes and those publishing in Scopus-indexed journals.
Department officials worry these stricter norms might deter many potential applicants. They plan to monitor university recruitment before deciding on other hirings or norm adjustments. Officials hope the new process begins soon.