AP universities withdraw 2023 faculty recruitment notifications

VISAKHAPATNAM: State universities in Andhra Pradesh have begun withdrawing the recruitment notifications issued in 2023 for filling vacant professor and faculty posts after legal challenges were raised over the implementation of reservation rosters.

“The government, after due legal consultation, feels that there is sufficient legal justification to withdraw the recruitment notification," the higher education department said in a recent order. Accordingly, vice-chancellors have been directed to place the matter before their respective executive councils for taking decisions in accordance with university Acts. A fresh consolidated recruitment notification for nearly 1,500 faculty positions across state universities is expected within a week.

The 2023 notifications attracted nearly 46,000 applications collectively. However, the number of aspirants was likely much higher because candidates were allowed to apply to multiple universities through a single application and fee. Andhra University received around 35,000 applications for 520 notified posts. Had separate applications been required for each university, the total number of applications could easily have crossed 1.5 to 2 lakh. With the universities now withdrawing these notifications, the same pool of aspirants is now expected to apply again under the fresh recruitment process.

State universities have been grappling with severe faculty shortages for more than 15 years due to the absence of regular recruitment. The shortage has affected teaching standards, research output, and the overall quality of higher education in the state. Meanwhile, the rapid expansion of private universities over the past two decades has further intensified the challenges faced by public universities. In many institutions, vacancy levels remain alarmingly high. Andhra University, for example, has nearly 80% of its sanctioned faculty posts vacant.

This is not the first time that faculty recruitment has run into legal and administrative hurdles. In 2017, the then government initiated recruitment for 1,385 faculty posts across 14 state universities. As part of the process, Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission conducted a screening examination for assistant professor posts, in which nearly 24,000 candidates appeared and 3,436 qualified. The results were communicated to the respective universities, but the recruitment process stalled due to prolonged litigation and disputes over reservation rosters and recruitment rules.

However, the APPSC assistant professor exam qualified candidates maintain that the 2017-18 recruitment process was legally valid under the rules in force at that time. Alleging that subsequent governments and officials blocked the process by retrospectively applying revised reservation and roster policies, they have urged the govt to recognise the APPSC-qualified candidates and conduct a fair review to restore the stalled recruitment process.

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