Context: 

The paucity of a sufficient number of faculty members undermines the growth of the country’s knowledge sector and hinders its aspiration to be recognised as a “vishwa guru”. 

Obstacles in finding viable solutions to faculty shortages:

• Lack of reliable data on current faculty resources in colleges and universities. 
• The partial understanding of faculty shortages as merely a quantitative issue.

Reasons behind the lack of reliable data on faculty shortages:

• There is no standing mechanism to collect this information regularly.
• Most academic institutions have messy and incomplete websites containing only partial information about their faculty bodies.
• Providing data on colleges and universities, including the number of faculty members, under the annual All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) is voluntary for various institutions. 
• The responsibility for the accuracy of the data rests with the institution, meaning the information provided is not verified by any independent agency.
• Adjunct or part time faculty members are often counted as part of the regular faculty to show off a favourable teacher student ratio.

Teacher shortages – a quantitative and qualitative issue:

Stakeholders often misunderstand faculty shortages to be a quantitative issue. The nature and scope of the shortage is actually more complex.

• Six types of shortages:

• • The number of faculty members varies across disciplines, institutions and locations. There may even be an oversupply in some disciplines or locations and an acute shortage in others.
  • Fund shortage: It creates the inability to hire faculty despite a desperate need for them. Despite a large increase in the number of students, State governments have not created or sanctioned new positions. And even when such positions exist, they are kept vacant due to a lack of funds.
  • Shortage due to profiteering: The third kind of shortage exists due to the unwillingness of institutions to hire faculty members. This is common in many private colleges whose primary purpose is profit ­seeking. They also hire less qualified people in poorly paid part time positions. 
  • Reservation related shortage: The faculty positions remain vacant due to the unavailability of qualified applicants from the reserved quota. There is a minuscule number of teachers belonging to SC, ST category. 
  • Location related shortage: There is unwillingness among faculty members to work at select institutions due to their unfavourable location and/or the working and living conditions they present. 
  • Quality related shortage: Faculty shortages are also of a qualitative kind where actual shortages may not exist, say, in terms of the number of applicants with PhDs but due to just a few candidates being really qualified for the corresponding position. 

Other challenges before higher educational sector in India:

Report of the Standing Committee on Human Resource Development in 2017

• Shortage of resources: Nearly 65% of the University Grants Commission (UGC) budget is utilised by the central universities and their colleges while state universities and their affiliated colleges get only the remaining 35%.   
• Accountability and performance of teachers:  At present, there is no mechanism for ensuring the accountability and performance of professors in universities and colleges.
• Lack of employable skills:  Lack of employable skills in students of technical education has been observed.  
• Poor Governance: Management of Indian education faces challenges of over-centralization, bureaucratic structures and lack of professionalism.

Reforming the higher education sector:

• Mobilisation of funds: The Committee recommends that the mobilisation of funds in state universities should be explored through other means such as endowments, contributions from industry, alumni, etc.
• Performance audit: 
  1. A system of performance audit of professors based on the feedback given by their students and colleagues should be set up. 
  2. Other inputs like research papers, publications by teachers should be added in the performance audit in due course of time.

• Identification of skill gaps: It should be performed across different sectors and courses be offered for enhancing employability in them.  Some strategies in this regard can include: 
  1. Industry Institute Student Training Support
  2. Industrial Challenge Open Forum
  3. Long-Term Student Industry Placement Scheme
  4. Industrial Finishing Schools.

• Accreditation of institutions:  
  1. Accreditation of higher educational institutions needs to be at core of the regulatory arrangement in higher education. 
  2. Quality assurance agencies should guarantee basic minimum standards of technical education to meet the industry demand for quality manpower.  
  3. The National Board of Accreditation should act as a catalyst towards quality enhancement and quality assurance of higher technical education.

• Rating of Higher education institutions: Credit rating agencies, reputed industry associations, media houses and professional bodies should be encouraged to carry forward the process of rating of Indian universities and institutions. 

News Source: The Hindu,  PRS