According to the statistics by the ministry of education, there are over 11,000 vacant seats for faculty positions at the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs). The data was shared by Dharmendra Pradhan, the union education minister, in the Lok Sabha. In 45 central universities in the country, a total of 6,180 posts of professor, associate professor and assistant professor, out of 18,956 sanctioned posts are vacant, stated a report by PTI.
In IITs in India, a total of 4,502 posts out of 11,170 posts are sanctioned remain vacant whereas IIMs 493 posts out of 1,566 faculty posts are vacant. The union education minister said, "Occurrence of vacancies and filling thereof is a continuous process. Central Universities are autonomous bodies, established under respective Central Acts. Their recruitment procedure is formulated by their statutory bodies in accordance with their acts, statutes, rules and UGC regulations or guidelines," as reported by PTI.
The minister further added that all the Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) have been directed to fill up the vacancies in a Mission Mode. "In addition to writing to all the HEIs to fill up the vacancies in a Mission Mode, the ministry has set up a monthly monitoring mechanism," he said.
Among the vacant posts in the central universities and IIMs, 961 positions are reserved for candidates from the SC category, 578 for the ST category, and 1,657 are OBC posts. The vacant positions reserved for EWS and PWD categories are 643 and 301 respectively. According to the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers Cadre) Act, reservation is applicable in all Higher Educational Institutions except the institutions listed in the schedule. "As per this Act, reservation is provided for all posts in direct recruitment in teacher's cadre in Central Educational Institutions. After enactment of this Act, no reserved post is to be de-reserved," Pradhan said, as per the PTI report.