The Union Education Ministry stated in the Rajya Sabha that over 10,000 positions are lying vacant across universities, IITs and IIMs. This happened on December 15. Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in a written response, informed that there was a vacancy for as many as 6,535 full-time teaching posts. As far as IIMs and IITs go, the number was 403 across the 20 IIMs and 3,876 in the 23 IITs.

In a written response during the Monsoon session, the government had informed the Parliament that these vacancies account for 40 per cent of the total teaching positions in central universities, as per a report in The Indian Express.

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Even when it comes to SC, ST and OBC communities' representation in various teaching roles, the performance of the institutes is poor. As many as 1,015 SC faculty positions, 590 ST and 1,767 OBC posts are vacant in central universities and in IITs, collectively, 32 ST, 183 SCs and 462 OBC faculty. The numbers when it comes to IIMs are 5, 27 and 45 respectively for SC, ST and OBC communities. As per the Constitution of India, at least 7.5 per cent of teaching positions are to be occupied by STs, 15 per cent by SCs and 27 per cent by OBCs in educational institutes.

As per the UGC (University Grants Commission), there are 54 central universities in the country.