State likely to introduce written test for appointment of assistant professors

Patna: The Bihar State University Service Commission is likely to introduce a written test for the appointment of assistant professors soon. The chancellor’s secretariat has already initiated the necessary steps for amendments in the Statute for the appointment of assistant professors in the universities of Bihar, 2025.

A meeting of the eight-member statute committee constituted by governor-cum-chancellor Arif Mohammed Khan was held at Lok Bhavan on Thursday to give a final shape to the statute incorporating the new provision of a written test, besides an interview, in the appointment of assistant professors. A final decision on the issue is likely to be taken in its next meeting scheduled for February 25, sources said.


The statute committee’s meeting, headed by the Jaya Prakash University-Chhapra vice-chancellor (VC) Parmendra Kumar Bajpai, was attended by vice-chancellors of B N Mandal University-Madhepura, B R A Bihar University-Muzaffarpur, Purnea University-Purnia, Chanakya National Law University, director of IIT-Patna, chairman of Bihar State University Service Commission (BSUSC) and the director of higher education.

Lok Bhavan sources said the chancellor’s secretariat had earlier received a proposal from the state education department for framing a statute regarding the introduction of a state-level written test for the recruitment of assistant professors in different subjects. Only those applicants who fulfil the minimum UGC requirements will be allowed to take the written test, if a statute to this effect is framed, the sources said. Even NET-qualified and PhD degree holders will have to appear in this written test.

Sources said the BSUSC may advertise the vacancies of nearly 5,000 assistant professors, soon after the approval of the revised statute. The state education department has already asked all the universities of the state to furnish the complete list of vacant posts of teachers in different subjects after clearing the reservation roster from the competent authority. Some universities have reportedly furnished the vacancies and the remaining ones are busy calculating their subject-wise vacancies and getting the reservation roster in these vacancies cleared.

Earlier, the BSUSC had advertised as many as 4,638 posts of assistant professors in 52 subjects in 13 conventional universities of the state in Sept 2020. In the last five years, almost all the appointments, except in some subjects (due to litigation), have been completed.

Sources further said that the universities are also likely to get directly recruited associate professors and professors after a long time. For the last several decades, the universities have only promoted teachers to the superior posts under time-bound and merit promotion statutes and career advancement schemes. Under the provisions of the new statutes for appointment of teachers on superior posts, an assistant professor may become an associate professor after eight years of service and a professor after 10 years of service if he or she is academically competent, he said.