11,000 Vacant Faculty Positions in IITs and IIMs

In 45 Central Universities across the nation, including IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) and IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management), over 11,000 faculty positions are vacant. According to the Ministry of Education’s (MoE) statistics, more than 30% of the posts of professors, associate professors, and assistant professors are vacant across these universities.

In IITs across the country, around 4502 posts out of 11,170 faculty positions are vacant. Similarly, 493 posts out of 1566 sanctioned faculty posts are empty in the IIMs across the nation. In the central universities, more than 6180 posts out of 18,956 sanctioned posts are empty.

Out of these vacant positions in the central universities and IIMs, 961 are reserved for the SC category, 578 for the ST category, and 1657 are in the OBC category. There are 643 and 301 positions vacant, respectively, in the EWS and PWD categories as well. 

According to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan the occurrence of vacancies and the 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, UGC regulations, or guidelines.

Pradhan further adds that he has instructed all higher education institutions (HEIs) to fill up all the vacancies across all universities in “mission mode.” They have also been instructed to set up a monthly monitoring mechanism for them. 

According to the Reservation in Teacher’s Cadre Act, 2019, all the Central Educational Institutions are notified to ensure the preparation of the rosters by considering the universities as one unit. Further, this reservation applies to all the higher educational institutions (HEIs) except for the instructions listed in the schedule and a few other exceptions exclusively stated in the Act.

In the words of the Union Education Minister, “As per the Act, reservation is provided for all posts in different recruitments of the teacher’s cadre in central educational institutions.” “After the enactment of this Act, no reserved post is to be de-reserved.”