Over 70% Teaching Posts Vacant in Telangana Universities as Hiring Stalls

HYDERABAD — Recruitment for teaching posts across 12 state universities in Telangana remains stalled more than a year after the State government issued direct recruitment guidelines, leaving over 70 per cent of faculty positions vacant. The prolonged delay continues to impact institutions in Hyderabad and across the state, forcing universities to run departments using temporary staff.

The last major faculty recruitment drive took place in 2013 under the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh administration. Following state formation, the previous BRS government approved 2,825 vacancies across 15 state universities and passed the Telangana State Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill in 2022. However, the then Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan referred the bill to the President of India, where it remains pending approval.

Last year, the Congress government issued GO MS 21 to set guidelines for direct faculty recruitment in 12 universities. Despite issuing the government order, hiring has not moved forward. Teaching job aspirants have raised objections to the selection criteria under GO MS 21, specifically criticizing the allocation of only 10 marks for a PhD, compared to the 30 marks specified under University Grants Commission (UGC) norms.

The State government has not yet taken a decision regarding the objections to GO MS 21 or restarted the recruitment process. In the absence of regular appointments, departments across state universities are operating with contract faculty, guest lecturers, academic consultants, and part-time teachers.

The deadlock over faculty recruitment persists despite claims by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy that state universities would be developed on the lines of Stanford and Oxford Universities.