Bhubaneswar: As many as 103 teaching posts against the sanctioned strength of 184 are lying vacant in Odisha University of Technology and Research (OUTR), Bhubaneswar, affecting research and teaching work. Similarly, 58 out of 99 non-teaching posts are lying vacant in the university.Last Friday, skill development and technical education minister Sampad Chandra Swain had told the state assembly that an advertisement was issued in 2024 for filling up 92 teaching positions, which was vacant then. “But due to legal constraints, these positions have not been filled. So, temporary guest lecturers have been appointed to meet the teaching needs,” said Swain in his reply to the state assembly on Friday.Bibhuti Bhushan Biswal, the vice-chancellor of OUTR, said they have completed the process for recruitment of teachers started in 2024, but are waiting for the Supreme Court’s order to publish the result. “Some candidates had approached the court related to issues in the recruitment process. After receiving the court order, we will issue appointment letters to the successful candidates. Then the vacancy issue will be resolved,” he said.Similarly, for non-teaching positions, only 41 of the total sanctioned 99 posts are filled, and retired govt employees are temporarily engaged as needed.The minister said necessary steps are being taken to fill teaching and non-teaching positions according to prevailing regulations.A teacher from the university said teaching and research work are getting affected due to the shortage of faculty members. “Regular faculty members are overburdened with teaching, research, collaboration and administrative work. Due to the work pressure, they cannot focus on innovation, and the quality of teaching and research is compromised. To guide research scholars, we need regular teachers, because guest faculty members cannot guide the PhD scholars,” he said.A BTech student from computer science engineering department said 81 regular teachers are not enough to teach or guide around 7,000 students. “Guest faculty cannot handle all work related to research, innovation and collaboration. For running centres of excellence, we need regular teachers. If more qualified teachers get appointed, we will get benefitted in different areas, including placement and getting research projects. We request the govt to fill up teaching posts,” he said.College of Engineering and Technology, established in 1981, was granted unitary university status on Oct 8, 2021, and became OUTR. Before this, it had been functioning under Biju Patnaik University of Technology since 2002.
