167-year-old Madras University plagued by acute staff shortage

Chennai: One of the oldest higher education institutes in the country, the prestigious University of Madras, which boasts of an illustrious alumni list consisting of five Presidents and two Nobel Laureates, is now besieged with an acute shortage of professors as over 60 per cent permanent posts are lying vacant for the past few years. 

The situation is quite critical that at least half-a-dozen departments and a few research centres are functioning without a faculty, while more than a dozen departments have just one staff against the sanctioned strength of seven or more each. 

Adding to its woes, the University doesn’t have a full-time Vice-chancellor since August 2023 with the appointment delayed due to the ever-growing differences between the Tamil Nadu government and Governor R N Ravi over the administration of state-run universities, seriously affecting its day-to-day functioning. 

‘Research activities a casualty’

The biggest casualty of the staff shortage is research activities, one of the unique features of the university, with the number of papers presented by professors in national and international forums dropping to a new low. 

The university’s ranking in the overall category in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) has also witnessed a slump from 41 in 2020 to 64 in 2024, though a marginal increase from 65 in 2023.

Of the sanctioned strength of 540 professors, the University currently has only 184 permanent teaching staff with 356 posts lying vacant. While the varsity has recruited about 145 teaching staff on contract/temporary basis, there is also a severe shortage in non-teaching staff with 960 of the 1,500 posts lying unfilled for many years, sources told DH.

These have also had an impact on admission of students with just guest lecturers manning many departments. The number of research scholars are also coming down as one professor can guide only four Ph.D students at a given time. Many departments of the university, professors told DH on the condition of anonymity, have also become ineligible for Centrally sponsored schemes due to lack of required strength. 

“The university is in dire straits. We have almost been abandoned by the state government. The temporary staff don’t stay for long and their dedication is much less when compared to permanent staff due to a slew of reasons, including low pay,” a senior professor told DH. 

 “Many departments that are either closed or run with temporary staff can give run to the money of many private colleges. Sadly, nothing has moved in the past few years with the number of vacancies increasing each passing year,” another professor said. 

'No faculty in many departments'

The first professor said if the university can score 64^th rank in the NIRF ratings with less than half of its sanctioned strength, one can imagine its performance if all vacant posts are filled. “A golden opportunity is being missed. This is an institute that got several prestigious accreditations and ratings in the past,” he added.   

Sources told DH that the vacancies were created over the years due to retirement, resignation, and voluntary retirement of professors, and complained that no serious effort was taken to fill the vacancies on time. 

Established in 1857, the 167-year-old varsity produced Nobel Laureates C V Raman and Subrahmanyam Chandrasekar, and S Radhakrishnan, V V Giri, Nilam Sanjeeva Reddy, R Venkataraman, and A P J Abdul Kalam, who served as Presidents in different tenures, among others. “This varsity was a pioneer in language studies and most of the departments are now one-man shows with students also not preferring the institute due to lack of adequate staff,” the second professor quoted above said. 

Departments like Adult and Continuing Education, counselling psychology, and pharma, have no faculty, while departments of history, Sanskrit, ancient history, philosophy, Urdu, Hindi, and Telugu function with just one faculty. Thirukkural Research Centre, Ambedkar Research Centre, and Christian Tamil Literature Centre, also don’t have faculties.  

Recruitment process is on: Government

Another professor said the interim management council, which is headed by bureaucrats in the absence of the V-C, doesn’t know how to run a higher education institute. “For example, professors are not allowed to travel abroad for presenting papers or enhancing their academic knowledge. Being a professor himself, the V-C would understand its importance and grant necessary approvals,” he said. 

When contacted, a source in the government told DH that the process of recruiting professors for state-run universities and colleges has begun and will be completed within a year. “We acknowledge and admit that there is a massive staff shortage in the University of Madras. But the recruitment will be done as per the process, including conduct of eligibility test, main test, and interview. It is a time-consuming process,” the source added.  

The professors also said no promotions have been given to them for the past five years and the institution has been running with its own revenue and resources, including the interest incurred from its corpus funds. They added that the university hasn’t increased its fees for at least two decades, which is another reason for lack of modern infrastructure.