Over 40% sanctioned teaching positions in at least 14 central universities vacant: Govt

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At least 14 central universities across the country have over 40 percent of their sanctioned teaching positions lying vacant with two of them having over 70 percent vacancy, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan shared the data in response to a question in the Upper House.

According to the data, on April 1 overall 33.4 percent of teaching positions and 37.7 percent non-teaching sanctioned positions in central universities were lying vacant.

"Arising of vacancies and filling up is a continuous process. The data with regard to posts lying vacant for more than three years, as on date, is not maintained, centrally," Pradhan said.

The ministry's data showed that of the 18,911 sanctioned teaching positions in the 45 central universities, over 6,000 are lying vacant.

The Delhi University has the highest number of vacancies with 846 of its sanctioned 1,706 posts lying vacant. The other with over 500 vacancies is the University of Allahabad. It has 598 of its 863 teaching posts vacant.

The data also revealed that more than 50 percent or 23 of the 44 universities have over 30 percent vacancies and there are just three universities with less than 20 percent vacancies.

For all the 45 central universities, a total of 33.4 percent of the sanctioned teaching positions are lying vacant as of April 1, 2021.

The ministry also informed the house that of the 36,351 non-teaching positions over 13,700 positions are vacant in these institutions, which amounts to 37.7 percent.