Jammu, March 25 About a dozen universities in Jammu and Kashmir are struggling with a severe shortage of faculty, with around 40 per cent of teaching positions vacant, according to official data.
Figures provided by the Higher Education Department show that more than 3,300 teaching positions have been approved across nine public universities and two central universities operating under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Education, while only around 1,900 are currently filled, creating a significant gap that has forced several institutions to operate with far below their approved strength.
The data shows that the University of Jammu has 252 teachers employed against 442 approved positions, resulting in around 43 per cent vacancies, while the University of Kashmir has 373 teachers employed against 570 approved positions, representing a shortage of approximately 35 per cent.
In agricultural universities, SKUAST-Jammu has 237 teachers employed against 411 approved positions, representing nearly 42 per cent vacancies, while SKUAST-Kashmir has 424 teachers employed against 540 approved positions, resulting in approximately 21 per cent unfilled positions.
Among other institutions, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Rajouri, has only 93 teachers against 241 approved positions, representing more than 60 per cent vacancies, while the Islamic University of Science and Technology has 135 teachers against 385 approved positions, with nearly two-thirds of the positions vacant.
The Central University of Kashmir has 108 teachers employed against 195 approved positions, while the Central University of Jammu has 160 teachers employed against 177 approved positions. Similarly, the cluster universities of Jammu and Srinagar have 13 and 18 teachers respectively, against 16 and 56 approved positions.
Overall, these figures indicate that most universities in Jammu and Kashmir are operating with shortages ranging from around 20 per cent to over 60 per cent of their approved teaching staff, raising concerns about academic workload and departmental functioning.
Student enrolment data shows that universities across Jammu and Kashmir have a combined strength of more than 69,000 students, with the majority being local students, while non-local students number 3,465, including 12 foreign nationals.
The figures indicate that Cluster University Jammu and Cluster University Srinagar have the highest enrolment, with 16,711 and 16,179 students respectively, followed by the University of Kashmir with 12,002 students and the University of Jammu with 3946 students.
The Central University of Jammu has 3,372 students, while the Central University of Kashmir has 2,592 students enrolled in various programs. Other universities, including SKUAST-Jammu, SKUAST-Kashmir, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, the Islamic University of Science and Technology, and Mata Vaishno Devi University have 1997, 4959, 2401, 4827, and 796 students respectively.
Data on the composition of teaching staff also reflects a strong local presence in most universities. At the University of Kashmir, 356 out of 373 teachers are local, while the University of Jammu has 198 local teachers out of 252 employed. SKUAST-Kashmir has 378 local teachers out of 424, and SKUAST-Jammu has 146 local teachers out of 237.
In contrast, central universities show a higher proportion of non-local faculty. The Central University of Jammu has 112 non-local teachers out of 160 employed, while the Central University of Kashmir has 45 non-local teachers out of 108.
