Without VC, Osmania struggles with official work, 60 percent teaching posts lay vacant

The delay in the appointment of a full-time vice-chancellor is creating administrative logjams at Osmania University. With nearly 60 per cent of teaching posts lying vacant in the university, recruitment is the most crucial work that has been pushed to the background in the absence of a full-time VC.

Of the 1,254 teaching positions, OU has only 450 permanent teachers.

For a good part of last year, recruitment could not take place because the Centre was mulling a new roster system. After stiff opposition and court cases, when the decision to follow the old roster system had been upheld, the term of the VC was over.

"Several departments do not have the requisite number of faculty. As a result, they are not able to avail funding from UGC and DBT for research. Lack of research funding means inadequate and poor quality of research. Need for full-time VC is the need of the hour so that the vacancies in the university can be filled up," Prof Ch Parandamulu, professor of sociology, said.

Though the government had issued orders for appointment of senior bureaucrats as in-charge VCs until full-time appointments were made -- in the nine-state Universities where posts had been demitted --this measure has proved futile since the bureaucrats appointed as in-charge VCs are some of the busiest administrators due to their hefty portfolios.

Osmania University, the biggest State university that has many academic and affiliated college-related affairs to be taken care on a daily basis is headed by MAUD Principal Secretary Arvind Kumar. He is also heading Mahatma Gandhi University in Nalgonda.

"How can one person be expected to run two universities that too one local and another 100 km from the city? All work pertaining to PhDs has come to a standstill. Sending theses for evaluation by external examiner has to be approved by VC as is the process of granting the degree," said Battu Satyanarayana, president, Osmania University Teachers Association (OUTA). He further added that all routine administrative works have come to a standstill in the absence of the VC.

Post-July 24, when the offices of the VCs were demitted, the officials in the education department had claimed that the government was keen on finalising the names of new VCs and complete the process by August to avoid any delays. In fact applications with detailed biodatas were sent to the Education Secretary by July 23.