Retd. dons invited back to college

HYDERABAD: Highly qualified retired professors can once again start teaching students of engineering colleges. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) will be allowing technical institutions to hire retired faculty up to the age of 70.
The AICTE has taken this decision a few days ago to bridge the shortage of qualified teachers in technical institutions, particularly engineering colleges across the country, an official in the technical education department said.
For several years, engineering colleges have been facing shortage of faculty particularly in professor and assistant professor posts for various reasons. The prime one, non-availability of staff who have PG degree and Ph.D. along with quite a few years of teaching experience.
With the boom in software market, thousands of engineering students have been opting for jobs in software companies after completing their graduation. This resulted in a situation where very few students opted for post graduation courses such as M. Tech.
To tide over the situation, the AICTE has been granting crores of rupees to several technical universities to encourage students to pursue M.Tech. courses.
For instance, the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) has been giving Rs 5,000 stipend per month to M.Tech students who were admitted based on the ranks secured in Graduate Aptitude Test of Engineering (Gate). Despite this, several universities failed to attract PG students.
Besides, most of the PG students are not willing to take up teaching posts primarily, because of the salary amount. According to a M Tech student from the University of Hyderabad, P S N Raju, teaching job is not that lucrative when compared to jobs in software and other fields.
He said a M Tech student gets double the salary of a professor in software profession within a few years, whereas the situation is different in the teaching field as he has to complete a minimum of 10 years to become a professor. Higher education minister P Venkateswara Rao said the decision would help colleges.
"The decision will help students to learn from experienced teachers," he said.