IIT Teacher Shortage: On one hand, the prestigious IITs of the country are starting new courses, increasing student capacity and expanding research activities. On the other hand, these institutions are facing severe shortage of teachers. According to official data, thousands of faculty posts are still vacant in 23 IITs of the country. In such a situation, it is feared that it will have an impact on teaching, research and operators of new educational programs. According to the report of the Centre, out of more than 12,000 sanctioned faculty posts in all the 23 IITs of the country, more than 4300 posts are vacant. This means that about 38.4 percent of the total sanctioned posts are vacant, while in other words, the posts of almost two out of every five teachers are still not filled.

More than half the posts are vacant in many IITs

According to the report, maximum shortage of faculty has been recorded in IIT Patna and IIT Kharagpur. 54.6 percent posts are vacant in IIT Patna while 51.3 percent posts are vacant in IIT Kharagpur. Apart from this, there are 12 other IITs where more than one-third of the posts of teachers are lying vacant. The situation remains worrying even in the first generation IITs. There are 39 percent vacancies in IIT Kanpur, 38.4 percent in IIT Bombay and 38.3 percent in IIT Delhi. Whereas among the second generation IITs, 39.9 percent posts are reported vacant in IIT Mandi and among the third generation IITs, 48.4 percent in IIT Dhanbad, 45.8 percent in IIT Goa and 42.2 percent in IIT Guwahati. However, the vacancy situation is better in some new IITs. Like only 1.7 percent posts are vacant in IIT Dharwad, 5.88 percent in IIT Palakkad, 14.35 percent in IIT Ropar, 14.38 percent in IIT Tirupati and 15.1 percent in IIT Bhilai.

Students are increasing in IIT, but not teachers

IITs across the country are continuously expanding their academic programs. New and special programs like Artificial Intelligence, Design, Public Policy have been started in institutes. Along with this, the government is also working on a plan to add about 6500 new seats in IITs by 2028-29. At such a time, shortage of faculty is being considered a big challenge. At present more than 1.35 lakh students are studying in IIT. In such a situation, due to shortage of teachers, pressure on studies, research and running of new courses may increase.

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Why are posts not being filled in IITs?

According to the directors of IITs, the biggest reason for the vacancies is the increasing competition for qualified researchers and teachers at the global level. He says that IITs have to compete with the world’s top universities, multinational research and development institutes and deep-tech startups, where many qualified PhD candidates go there due to better opportunities. Apart from this, the recruitment process of IIT is also considered quite selective. The institutes want to appoint only eligible candidates and prefer to keep the posts vacant till they find suitable candidates rather than compromising on the standards.

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