Shimla, June 15: Already grappling with shortage of staff, Himachal Pradesh University is in a tight spot as Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) elections will coincide with admissions, entrance tests and examinations of undergraduate and postgraduate courses. As many as 121 employees, including 68 from examination and six from secrecy branch, have been deployed on election duty, hampering the work and forcing the university to reschedule some examinations.
The admissions are on for 28 postgraduate courses, besides BBA, BCA and other courses and the entrance tests are being held. This is the prime time of the academic year as admissions are being made, roll numbers of candidates appearing in various entrance examinations have been dispatched and the examinations of the University Institute of Information Technology (UIIT) second and fourth semester falling on June 16 (polling day) have been rescheduled to June 20 and 21.
“Our prime concern is to maintain peace as this is the time (admission) when students outfit vie with each other to establish supremacy and threat of eruption of violence loom large, disturbing the academic peace.
We have to ensure that the exam schedule is not disturbed,” said acting Vice-Chancellor of HPU Prof RS Chauhan.“Another challenge faced by the university was recruitment of teachers in the departments where the shortage of faculty is acute as 13 teachers are retiring on June 30. The finance committee has sanctioned 151 posts, including self-finance courses, and efforts are afoot to recruit teachers before the commencement of academic session,” he added.
“There is an acute shortage of teaching faculty in some departments like sociology, running with only one teacher, economics with two teachers while in bio-sciences there are only five teachers against the sanctioned strength of 21,” said ac source in the university. As many as 19 teachers are required in the evening college and the MCom and MBA Department at the Regional Centre at Dharamsala is running with just one teacher.
Source Tribune India
