With permanent staff numbers declining at University of Mysore, research and PhD numbers could drop

The University of Mysore plans to knock on the doors of the Higher Education Department, as they are in fear of seeing a decline in research activities at the varsity - with several permanent faculty positions remaining vacant. With the state government delaying the recruitment of teaching staff to the University of Mysore for the past few years, academicians fear that this would have an adverse impact on the research activities at this century-old University.

During the Academic Council meeting held on September 7, a member asked if a non-permanent staff at a research centre can work as a guide for PhD candidates. As per the eligibility criteria of the University of Mysore, it is mandatory that only a professor or scientist of equivalent cadre working on regular basis is considered as a PhD guide. Those hired on a contract basis can't be considered as PhD guides.

While responding to the question, Prof G Hemantha Kumar, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mysore said that as the number of permanent faculty members in the varsity were declining and new recruitment of teaching staff have not happened it could have an impact on the research activities. The VC said, "I will write to the government to draw its attention to this issue. Necessary measures will be taken based on its recommendation."

The Council also took a decision to pass UG and PG students of then2019 batch registered under distance learning to the next semester based on the marks obtained by them in the previous semester exams, owing to the due to COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, a new gold medal in the name of Prof BS Vishwanath and an endowment cash prize named after Kambapati Srinivas Rao for meritorious students and top scorers will be instituted henceforth.