-Dipta Joshi

Pune-based Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) will recruit more than 200 professors before September 5, 2022. The university will recruit 130 contractual professors and also fill all vacancies in its self-financed courses. The decision was announced by the University’s vice chancellor in charge, Prof. Karbhari Kale.

SPPU has been facing faculty shortages for its regular as well as self-financed courses for a long time despite having government sanctions to recruit for the same. According to media reports, prior to the new academic year in July this year, the university had filled only 169 of the 384 sanctioned faculty posts. As many as 214 posts – more than 50 percent of the faculty remained vacant.

The university’s faculty crunch extended to major departments like chemistry, physics, botany, statistics, and English and has impacted the smooth running of these departments. In an attempt to make up for the absent professors, existing professors have been teaching extra subjects besides their regular subjects. Many departments have been facing closures and negligible research work has been taking place due to the absence of full-time teaching staff. The faculty crunch has also resulted in lower PhD admissions at the university.   

The 2022 National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings released in July this year saw Savitribai Phule University’s ranking slip from 11^th to 12^th position. The university however maintained its leading position amongst the state’s public universities.  

The university was in the news recently for setting the world record of creating the ‘largest online photo album of people holding a national flag’ this Indian independence day (August 15, 2022). According to the Guinness World Record official present at the event, the final record was set at 1,52,559 national flag photos being held up. 

Also read: “If you are an Indian woman who reads, you owe Savitribai Phule”