SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, June 1: The HODs of PG departments of Ranchi University and principals of affiliated colleges will no longer be able to appoint guest faculty. As per information, if a guest faculty is appointed after May 31, the honorarium will not be paid to them by the university administration.
Ranchi University registrar Dr Mukund Mehta has written a letter to the principals and HODs in this regard, saying that guest faculty should not be appointed at the college and PG department level. The letter also states that if the teacher is needed, the HOD and the principal can send a proposal to the university administration, and teachers will be hired for them.
Notably, there are 14 affiliated colleges (apart from new colleges) under Ranchi University. Along with this, there are 30 PG departments. Meanwhile, directors of professional courses running at the PG level have also been asked not to appoint guest faculty at their level.
When questioned about the time it will take to hire new teachers and the overall process, he said, “Once we get a requirement, we will take out an advertisement in this regard. However, it will not be the case for one teacher in one department. We will try to make sure that there are at least a certain number of vacancies in departments all over and then will place the advertisement.”
Furthermore, when enquired if the students will face issues with teachers missing for a particular topic, the registrar said, “It’s not that there won’t be other teachers in the department. Even if the topics are different, the teachers are of the same subject. They may teach when such a case arises.”
However, the concern here is that in certain subjects or courses like vocational courses like journalism and film production, even if the subject is journalism, the different topics vary. Professors teaching sound for instance may not be able to teach news writing. While the ones teaching news writing may have issues teaching important aspects of photography.
Notably, this decision has been taken after complaints of hiring teachers on the basis of favouritism reached university officials. It is also clear from the letter that the appointment made by the college and PG departments on the post of guest faculty before May 31 is valid.
Other issues with the guest faculty appointed by the colleges and PG departments included the Ranchi University not being informed about a guest teacher till the day salary would be due.
