teachers gone

2006-08-02T04:45:00.000-07:00

There are two reasons behind the shortage — first, not many students want to join academics these days and secondly, with the limited resources in UGC, quality faculty is heading to private educational institutions for better pay packages.

With 479 faculty members on its rolls and an on-going recruitment drive, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) is not facing the heat, but s S Wasan, acting vice chancellor, admitted that getting quality faculty in certain areas like computer science, IT and engineering is a serious problem.

The paucity of qualified faculty is felt even more in professional and technical institutions. Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) has around 150 faculty members for approximately 2,500 students studying at the varsity’s in-house schools but when it comes to its affiliated institutions, the situation is far worse.

Almost 17 of its private affiliated institutions do not have between 32%-75% of the required faculty strength."At present, we are scrutinising around 20-25 such institutions who have failed to have adequate teaching staff. We have asked them to make the necessary arrangements to fill the gap before the commencement of the next session.

More than the number of total faculty members, it is the cadre ratio (which should be a minimum of 1:2:6 for professor:reader:lecturer) in which several institutions are lacking.

But that is primarily because it is difficult to get faculty at a senior level," said O P Goyal, director of colleges, GGSIPU.

At the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, which is considered a benchmark for other technical institutions, the situation is marginally better. Out of the 571 sanctioned posts, 427 have been filled.

Oxford

2006-08-02T04:42:00.000-07:00

While I was pursuing Economics (H) in LSR, I started applying in various universities in UK like Cambridge, Warwick, London School of Economics and many other reputed ones.

I was overwhelmed when Warwick accepted my application. However, my friend motivated me to submit an application to Oxford. I was taken aback when it got accepted.

I did MSc in Economics for one-year then I did another one-year Master's programme in Sociology. Even though my parents had to finance my education initially but in the first year itself I was offered a scholarship by the college.

This scholarship covered my tuition fees. Besides pursuing the Master's, I worked with a research group. I was also a member of the sports team in Oxford and played against the Cambridge team in different matches.

All my friends in Oxford were achievers in their own field and it was the pressure to be on par with them and a strive for excellence that kept me on my toes.

Education Information

teachers gone

Oxford