University of Rajasthan begins recruitment of professors, associate and assistant professors

Updated on: Saturday, November 03, 2012

After a long gap of 27 years, the University of Rajasthan on Friday began fresh process for recruitment of professors, associate and assistant professors among others. About 294 posts are to be filled during the process.

Announcement for the recruitments came after the vice-chancellor of the university met Governor Margaret Alva on Thursday who took an exception of the universities not commencing recruitments of professors despite provisions being made by the government two years back.

RU's public relations officer Bhupendra Shekawat informed that recruitment notification is for 35 professors, 61 associate professors and 198 assistant professors. "Applicants can download the form online from November 1 till December 31. The eligibility criteria and other terms and conditions are available on the university website," Shekawat said. The eligibility criteria clearly states that only those candidates who have cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET) would be allowed for appointment of lecturers in universities and colleges.

Of the total, a maximum of 34 teachers will be recruited in the chemistry department followed by 24 each for law and botany departments. Sources said the number of teachers to be recruited still fall short of the requirements and students have to make efforts to complete their courses by themselves.

The implications of the shortage of teachings staff has hit the student-teacher ratio. According to the latest UGC guidelines, the student-teacher ratio in science subjects should be around 1:11.5 and for humanities it should be 1:20. On the contrary, on an average every teacher has over 120 students in RU.

The announcement come as a respite for the departments like dramatics, European studies, centre for mass communication, which has only one professor for over 100 students. In Maharani's college, the student-teacher ratio is around 1:80.

Earlier in 2010, the RU had made advertisements to recruit 326 teachers. However, the recruitment process has been put on hold firstly following an agitation by students demanding to clear backlog for weaker sections and later it was called off as RU missed the time period.

"If RU has to regain its old glory, then recruitment should be made a regular activity. This time, I am sure they are all prepared and will not delay as done in the past, particularly because the number of existing teachers are declining every month," cautioned Rajiv Gupta, head of department, Sociology.

The university is expecting around 50,000 applications for the posts. Experts said if all goes on time, there is a possibility that the recruitment process will be over before the commencement of the new session.

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