Engineering colleges to face faculty shortage

Increasing demand of technical education would result in teachers’ shortage in Indian engineering colleges to almost double by 2011, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Increasing demand of technical education would result in teachers’ shortage in Indian engineering colleges to almost double by 2011, says a government committee.

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The engineering colleges will have 1.32 lakh less teachers if the government rule of one teacher for every 15-engineering student is applied, the P Rama Rao committee appointed by the Human Resource Development Ministry said. At the start of 2007-08, the shortage was about 72,000 teachers.

The increase in faculty shortage is result of the growth of the technical education sector in India will witness in the next few years, the committee says. From 6.5 lakh government’s approved intake in 2997-08, the intake would jump to over 10 lakh students in the academic year 2010-11.

A ministry official said the committee has given a projection based on the present faculty shortage and anticipated student intake in the next five years. The government has already announced increase in intake of 54 per cent to implement 27 per cent OBC quota.

A senior professor at the National University Education Planning and Administration said, an electronic engineer with a simple degree earns double than what a PhD holder salary is in the Indian universities. "When teaching is such a poor paid profession then who will opt for it. Government should realise the competition teaching is facing from the corporate market," he said.

The ministry official said, "The government is taking number of steps to prevent such a scenario. The University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education have been given special funds to encourage specialization in science and technical in the country". He added that already the retirement age for faculty has been increased to 65 years from 62.

Higher the specialization more would be the shortage, the Rao committee has said. By 2011, Indian universities would have 25,000 vacancies of PhD holders in comparison to 20,000 for those holding degree in masters. The reason for this was recently indicated by Scientific Advisor to Prime Minister CNR Rao, when he said, the number of students joining specialized education is falling drastically.

Professor RA Yadav vice-chairperson of the council said, "We are taking several steps to encourage students to pursue masters and PhD in engineering streams".