Filling Allahabad University teachers’ posts reserved for EWS aspirants proving tough

The major hurdle, AU officials say, in this is the norms of EWS quota and the qualification required for the candidates to vie for the post of professors or associate professors

Allahabad University (AU) is struggling to fill the posts of professors and associate professors reserved for economically weaker section (EWS) candidates. The major hurdle, AU officials say, in this is the norms of EWS quota and the qualification required for the candidates to vie for the post of professors or associate professors.

Allahabad University campus. (HT file)

According to the guidelines on minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers in universities issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the annual income of the candidate for associate professor wishing to be considered under the EWS quota should not exceed ₹8 lakh per year but they should have experience of teaching on the post of assistant professor for eight years.

In eight years as assistant professor, the annual salary of an individual easily exceeds the set upper limit of ₹8 lakh making them ineligible to be considered under EWS quota. Besides, they need to meet other criteria too like having seven research papers published in peer reviewed or UGC listed journals besides having completed their PhD as per the set norms.

Same is the case of candidates vying for the post of professors. Those applying for the post of a professor under the EWS quota should not have the annual income of over ₹8 lakh. Besides, they must have experience of teaching at the post of assistant and associate professor for 10 years, have 10 papers published in peer reviewed or UGC listed journals and also must hold PhD degree.

Here too, an individual who works for 10 years as an assistant or associate professor usually has a salary higher than ₹8 lakh per annum. If one takes case of Allahabad University, recently the recruitment process of teachers has been completed in 11 subjects. In nine of them, there were four posts of professor under EWS quota and all four remained vacant. At the same time, there were seven posts of associate professor under the EWS quota in 10 subjects and all these posts too remained vacant.

“AU is following the UGC norms in appointments being made in the university and specified reservation has been provided under the reservation policy in all categories. The candidates who applied under EWS category against the vacancies for the posts of associate professor need to have put in a minimum of 8 years of service as assistant professor and have annual salary less than ₹8 lakh, hence there is no possibility of finding minimum number of eligible candidates required to hold the interview rounds,” said AU PRO Prof Jaya Kapoor.

“For the posts of professor, there are some chances of candidates applying under EWS in the category B of eminent personalities but chances of fulfilling the criteria of minimum number of candidates for holding interview still are very slim and these positions too are bound to go unfilled,” she added.

Applications were accepted in October/November 2021 for 596 posts of assistant professor, associate professor and professor in the AU. There were 356 posts of assistant professor in 47 subjects, 170 posts of associate professor in 40 subjects and 70 posts of professor in 36 subjects.

Among these, 13 posts of associate professor and seven posts of professor are reserved under EWS quota. That is, a total of 20 posts of EWS which the varsity officials fear could remain vacant even after the recruitment process comes to a close.