This, say academicians, is a result of a state government policy adopted in the late 1990s whereby it decided not to fill up posts (grant-in-aid) till a review of all the posts across 19 universities in Maharashtra. However, the government did allow to fill backlog posts and 50 per cent vacancies in the open categories.

And now after permission from the state government in November 2007, the Mumbai University has advertised for an unprecedented 204 faculty positions. This includes posts of professor-cum-director, professor, assistant director, reader-cum-deputy director, deputy director (academic), reader and lecturer among others across various university departments and centres While senior academicians within the university have emphasised that faculty shortage is seriously affecting the quality of education being imparted, Vice-Chancellor Vijay Khole said that there was no shortage and these posts are those “which we couldn’t fill up earlier and the remaining are those that were lying vacant with us. But I am happy that the permission has come where we can enhance our teacher strength”.

Khole, however, said that a majority of the colleges affiliated to the university complained that it was difficult to get appropriate teachers, especially for the professional courses. “This is because professional courses now have a good market where the pay structure is high and promotional opportunities are more. So, few are willing to come to academics,” said Khole.

The university has vacancies in departments like economics, sociology, civics and politics, applied psychology, library and information science, English, mathematics, chemistry, physics, Marathi, life science, history, geography, statistics, linguistics, education, Hindi, commerce, Urdu and French. Self-supporting courses like communication and journalism, information technology, bio-physics, biotechnology and physical education also have several vacancies. The other vacancies are in the Institute of Distance Education and the sub-centre at Ratnagiri.

The university has also extended the last date for receipt of applications for the posts from January 4 to January 28.

Expressing concern over whether the university will get quality teachers for all the posts, particularly at the senior level, Pro Vice-Chancellor A D Sawant that once the academic trend is disturbed, it is difficult to rectify the gaps which are detrimental to the purpose of providing quality education and research. “Hardcore academicians are hard to find and this is because of opening of global opportunities coupled with the huge salary gap between academic institutes and the industry. Also, to enter as a lecturer, it’s necessary to clear NET/SET where results are low maybe owing to falling standards,” said Sawant.

He elaborated that academicians at the senior level do not want to change establishments since they are already working in specialised areas with proper infrastructure at their disposal, and could be engaged in research projects of national funding agencies. “Salary-wise too there’s not much of a difference, hence no one will change for a marginal difference. Also, getting tuned to new surroundings can be problematic and it’s difficult to imitate your specialisation in a new environment,” added Sawant.

He said that to tide over the growing need for quality faculty, universities could look at recruiting teaching staff at lower levels who are subsequently encouraged to grow within the establishment and develop their specialisation over a period of time.

Meanwhile, senior academicians within the university termed the government policy as “faulty” and said that it should not dictate when university needed to appoint “if there’s a necessity”. “The university is also at fault. It’s a known fact that quality teachers are difficulty to find. In the given context, university needs to play a pro-active role instead of compounding the vacancies every year,” said a professor.