Split spares varsity staff

[1]

Hyderabad: While the fate of government employees in Telangana and Seemandhra regions remains uncertain after bifurcation of AP, the state’s universities will remain untouched. The varsities will continue to represent a “united Andhra Pradesh” even after the bifurcation.
Universities across the state have been focal points for agitations in support of a separate Telangana as well as a united AP since November 2009 with student joint action committees and professors playing crucial roles.
However, the bifurcation will not have any impact on the teaching staff of universities unlike other government departments. This is because the varsities are autonomous bodies that follow national recruitment methods wherein candidates from any part of the state or the country can take up teaching jobs irrespective of regions.
Osmania University, the hot-bed of Telangana agitations, has several Seemandhra professors, while Andhra University, which is in the forefront of united AP agitations, has several professors from Telangana who have been working for decades. They will continue even after the state’s bifurcation. Out of the 600 professors in OU, more than 200 are from Seemandhra and other states.
The situation in other universities across the state is the same with nearly 50 per cent posts occupied by staff from other regions and states. “Universities cannot take up recruitment on local, non-local grounds as per UGC norms.
They have to recruit people from across the country by issuing notifications at a national-level. This is to maintain uniform academic standards across the country. Recruitments done on local, non-local grounds at state-level are invalid as per UGC norms,” said Prof B. Satyanarayana, president, Osmania University Teachers’ Association.
At present, there are 16 state conventional universities, which will continue to function normally with the existing staff even after the bifurcation of the state. However, for state specialised universities such as Health University, Agriculture University, Open University, Telugu University etc., which are present in only one part of the state and continue to operate state-wide, options have to be given to staff to choose a location as these universities also need to be bifurcated along with the state.