Jammu: About a dozen universities in Jammu and Kashmir are grappling with a severe faculty shortage, with around 40 percent teaching posts lying vacant, according to official data.
Figures provided by the Higher Education Department show that more than 3,300 teaching posts are sanctioned across nine public universities and two central universities functioning under the aegis of Union Ministry of Education, while only around 1,900 are in position, leaving a large gap that has forced several institutions to function with far below their approved strength.
The data shows that the University of Jammu has 252 teachers in position against 442 sanctioned posts, leaving around 43 percent vacancies, while the University of Kashmir has 373 teachers against 570 sanctioned posts, a shortage of about 35 percent.
In agricultural universities, SKUAST-Jammu has 237 teachers against 411 sanctioned posts, nearly 42 percent vacant, while SKUAST-Kashmir has 424 in position against 540 sanctioned posts, leaving about 21 percent posts unfilled.
Among other institutions, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Rajouri has only 93 teachers against 241 sanctioned posts, leaving more than 60 percent vacancies, while the Islamic University of Science and Technology has 135 teachers against 385 sanctioned posts, with nearly two-third posts vacant.
Central University of Kashmir has 108 teachers in position against 195 sanctioned posts, while Central University of Jammu has 160 teachers against 177 sanctioned posts. Similarly, the Cluster University Jammu and Srinagar have 13 and 18 teachers against 16 and 56 sanctioned posts, respectively.
Overall, the figures indicate that most universities in Jammu and Kashmir are running with shortages ranging from around 20 percent to over 60 percent of their sanctioned teaching strength, raising concerns over academic workload and functioning of departments.
Student enrolment data shows that universities across Jammu and Kashmir have a combined strength of more than 69,000 students, the majority of whom belong to the local category, 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.
Central University of Jammu has 3,372 students, while Central University of Kashmir has 2,592 students enrolled in different programmes. Other universities, including SKUAST-Jammu, SKUAST-Kashmir, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Islamic University of Science and Technology and Mata Vaishno Devi University have 1997, 4959, 2401, 4827 and 796 students, respectively.
Data on teaching staff composition also reflects a strong local presence in most universities. At the University of Kashmir, 356 out of 373 teachers are locals, while the University of Jammu has 198 local teachers out of 252 in position. SKUAST-Kashmir has 378 local teachers out of 424, and SKUAST-Jammu has 146 locals out of 237 teachers.
In contrast, central universities show a higher share of non-local faculty. Central University of Jammu has 112 non-local teachers out of 160 in position, while Central University of Kashmir has 45 non-locals out of 108 teachers.
