New Delhi: More than 5,000 teaching posts are currently vacant in central universities across India, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, November 28. In a written response, Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar revealed that as of October 31, there were 5,182 vacancies in these institutions, according to multiple news reports.
Majumdar attributed the vacancies to routine factors such as retirement, resignations and increased student enrollment. “The occurrence of vacancies and their filling is a continuous process,” he stated, adding that central universities are responsible for ensuring these posts are filled in a timely manner.
The minister noted that over 7,650 teaching positions have been filled through special recruitment drives. He also pointed to the CU-Chayan recruitment portal, launched by the University Grants Commission in May 2023, which provides a centralised platform for advertising and filling vacancies across all central universities.
“The Ministry of Education and University Grants Commission regularly monitor the institutions and the central universities have been directed to fill up the vacancies in regular mode,” Majumdar emphasised. In total, 25,777 positions – including 15,139 faculty posts – were filled in mission mode by central higher education institutions across the country, even as the government acknowledged that vacancies in teaching positions remain a persistent issue.
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Beyond central universities, other premier institutions, including Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Information Technology, National Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research and Indian Institute of Science Bangalore collectively filled 25,257 vacancies by October 29. Of these, 15,047 were faculty positions, including 1,869 reserved for Scheduled Castes, 739 for Scheduled Tribes and 3,089 for Other Backward Classes.
