Many engineering colleges in Bengaluru do not have enough professors. According to estimates by officials of Visvesvaraya Technological University a shortage of around 10 percent in teaching staff has been noticed after Covid-19 in almost every engineering college of the city.
More than half the engineering colleges in Bengaluru do not have the required numbers of professors.
Dr. Sunil Kumar, Special Officer of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) said that a shortage in teaching staff has been noticed since 2021 after the second wave of Covid-19.
An official at VTU, Regional Centre, Bengaluru said that an engineering college on Mysore Road, has reduced hiring of teaching staff by around 15 percent since Covid-19 pandemic.
Nagarjuna, a first year student of Computer Science branch from an engineering college of engineering said, “Many branches including ours don’t have sufficient professors because of which two to three classes are combined with other branches to teach the same subject.”
Nilanjan, physics professor in an engineering college said that due to a shortage of faculty in the physics and other departments the existing faculty have to teach subjects they might not be trained for.
Rakesh Ahuja, a student from the Mechanical Engineering branch said that due to shortage of teaching staff they have to rely on professors from other branches who might not be able to explain topics they don’t have the expertise in.
Rakesh added that he even complained to the administration and the management about this.
“The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has also noticed the shortage of faculty and issues with the quality of infrastructure of engineering colleges in recent inspections,” Kumar said.
Dr. Sudarshana Reddy, Regional Director of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) said, “There are certain procedures by which an engineering college is declared under staffed. According to the protocols of AICTE, every college needs to have at least 90 percent of the required teaching staff. Although top colleges usually have sufficient professors, colleges with a lower AICTE ranking are still struggling to meet the required number of professors.”
Class B engineering colleges with rankings above 150 in AICTE list whereas Class C engineering colleges are ranked below 150 and are considered to be poor in terms of management and placements.
Reddy alleged that many colleges make up data to show that they have adequate teaching staff.
“VTU conducts inspection of colleges every year and if any college fails to meet the criteria, it is placed on a warning list. After that the management of the college has to take required steps to fill the vacancies,” Reddy said.
Some engineering colleges on the warning list include Janavikas Institute of Technology, Channa Basaveshwara Institute of Technology, and Don Bosco Institute of Technology.
The management of Don Bosco Institute of Techonology said that they do have shortage of faculties but that doesn’t hamper the studies of the students.
An official from the college said that VTU put the college on the warning list for shortage of faculty but they have already recruited new staff and hope that will improve their ranking in the future.
Indraneel Sen, a retired professor of electrical engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and former AICTE member said that the reason for shortage of engineering professors is the laying-off of existing faculty. He said that hiring part-time professors for lesser salaries will help the college managements meet profit targets.
