Ahmedabad: In 1946, on a dry, stony plateau in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Dr Sir Hari Singh Gour—a criminal jurist, poet, and self-made scholar—established a university with Rs 2 crore from his own pocket. 

Gour did not receive state aid or private donations. His university was powered by his belief that education was the highest public good.

Dr Gour’s university—then called the University of Saugor—is older than independent India and is now a central university named after its founder. But today, with 88% of its professor positions vacant, its students struggle to find teachers who can mentor them or simply show up to teach. 

Overall, 77% of teaching posts remain unfilled at Dr Harisingh Gour University, according to a right-to-information (RTI) queries filed by this writer on 18 July 2025 with the University Grants Commission (UGC). In 2022, the figure was 68%.

India’s reputation as a global centre of learning stretches back centuries, anchored not only in ancient universities like Takshashila, Nalanda, Vikramashila, Valabhi, Somapura Mahavihara, and Pushpagiri, but also in the legacy of intellectuals and educators—Chanakya, Panini, Patanjali, Gautama Buddha, Mahavira, Shankaracharya, Vashishtha, Vyasa, Dronacharya, and Kapila among them. 

These institutions and individuals shaped vast systems of knowledge—spanning philosophy, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, statecraft, and ethics—that travelled across Asia and beyond.

Today, as India strives to reclaim its ancient mantle as a Vishwaguru—a global teacher and moral guide—the cracks in its contemporary knowledge systems are becoming difficult to ignore, as our compilation of RTI data reveals a severe and chronic shortage of faculty across universities and academic institutions. 

The concern becomes especially urgent on Teachers’ Day, 5 September, commemorating Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, India’s second President, celebrated philosopher, and lifelong advocate of education as a national pillar.

“Faculty vacancies are seriously damaging the quality of education—there is no doubt about it,” said Supriya Chaudhari, PhD, professor emerita of the English department at Jadavpur university in West Bengal. 

“We keep expanding universities, IITs, and IIMs, but without enough faculty, we cannot maintain quality,” said Chaudhari. “The shortage has made ad-hoc and guest faculty the new normal.”

The Rhetoric of Leadership

Ministers invoke ancient glories and intellectual heritage, but modern India’s classrooms, labs, and lecture halls are riddled with vacancy signs.

From minister of state Bhagwanth Khuba claiming India will reclaim its Vishwaguru (teacher to the world) role by 2047, to union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia promising the government “will not rest” until India becomes an intellectual superpower, the language of global aspiration is loud and persistent.

But the data tell a different story. A March 2025 Parliamentary Standing Committee report revealed that 28% of teaching posts and 48% of non-teaching posts in central universities remain vacant.

 Out of 18,940 sanctioned faculty positions, 5,410 are unfilled. For non-teaching staff, 17,255 out of 35,640 posts are empty.

Despite repeated parliamentary directives and budget allocations, India’s premier institutions have not managed to address their staffing crisis. 

“For decades, India had too few high-quality institutions,” said Anurag Behar, CEO of the Azim Premji Foundation & Chancellor of Azim Premji University, Bhopal. “Expanding their numbers was the right step—and setting them up across the country, including in smaller cities, was equally important for inclusive access.”

‘Great Teachers Aren’t Born’

But with such expansion come challenges. The biggest is finding the right number and mix of competent faculty. Without this, quality will inevitably suffer.

One key issue is the prolonged, bureaucratic hiring process, often involving multiple layers of approvals from the UGC, ministry of education, and governing bodies of individual institutions.

 In many cases, recruitment drives are either delayed or frozen due to litigation, policy bottlenecks, or financial constraints. Even when interviews are conducted, appointment letters can take months—or years—to be issued.

Another major hurdle is the shortage of qualified applicants, particularly at the professor level. The pipeline of PhD holders remains limited in key disciplines, and many promising candidates opt for overseas opportunities that offer better pay, infrastructure, and research freedom.

“Great teachers aren’t born—they need mentoring and time to develop,” said Devanshu Pandit, Phd, a senior lecturer who requested that his professional affiliation be withheld.

 Rigid eligibility criteria under UGC regulations—such as minimum publications, NET qualifications, and teaching experience—also disqualify many otherwise competent candidates. 

Additionally, heavy reliance on contractual or ad hoc staff in place of permanent faculty discourages long-term academic careers in public institutions. 

“Ad hoc positions rarely work well in education,” said Pandit.

India’s Scientific Showpieces, Running Half-Staffed

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were envisioned by Jawaharlal Nehru as the “temples of modern India.” But these temples are missing their priests.

In 1964, Dr Radhakrishnan conferred degrees on the first graduating batch of IIT Madras, underlining his lifelong belief in the power of higher education to shape a modern nation. 

As the institute’s official website recounts, the choice of location for IIT Madras was no simple matter. There was fierce competition among the southern states—Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madras (now Tamil Nadu), and Kerala—to host the prestigious new institution.

With the chief ministers unable to reach a consensus, the decision was eventually handed over to an expert committee, which selected Madras as the site.

Today, at IIT Madras, 429 of the 1,100 sanctioned teaching posts are vacant—a 39% shortfall. At IIT Kharagpur, the oldest IIT, 822 faculty positions out of 1600 are vacant—more than 51% of the sanctioned strength, according to internal ministry data accessed via the IIT Delhi website.

The trend is consistent across the IIT system, but official RTI replies from other campuses are still awaited. The vacant chairs not only hurt student-faculty ratios but also slow research, mentoring, and international collaboration.

Same Story At Central Universities

The story repeats itself in some of India’s most iconic public universities:

- The University of Allahabad, established in 1887, has 37% faculty vacancies, according to an RTI reply.

- The Central University of Odisha, founded post-2009, has 58% overall faculty vacancies. At the professor level, 20 out of 22 posts are vacant—over 90%.

- At Dr Harisingh Gour University, as we said earlier, no more than 23% of sanctioned teaching positions are filled.

Officials at the Central University of Odisha said they would provide a comment on the vacancies. We will update this story when they do.

Whether old or new, prestigious or obscure, India's central universities are struggling to recruit and retain faculty—especially at the senior-most level, where mentorship and academic leadership matter most.

“Faculty, not buildings, form the foundation of education,” said Apoorvanand, who uses one name and is a professor at Delhi University’s Hindi department.  “Without sufficient faculty, the quality of education is bound to suffer.”

IIMs: Management Without Managers

India’s management institutes are faring no better. 

Despite clear recommendations from a 2023 Parliamentary Committee to fill all vacancies at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) “in a time-bound manner,” the RTI replies we obtained show little progress:

- IIM Sambalpur: 21 of 66 faculty posts are vacant (31.8%); 41 of 60 non-teaching posts vacant (68.3%). (RTI reply dated 8 July 2025).  

- IIM Sirmaur: 26 of 75 teaching posts vacant (34.6%) (RTI reply dated 1 August 2025).

- IIM Jammu: 51 of 102 faculty posts vacant (50%) (RTI reply dated 29 July  2025).

- IIM Nagpur: 29 of 60 faculty posts vacant (48.3%) (RTI reply dated 1 August 2025)

The public relations officer of IIM Jammu said the RTI response to Article 14 was their official response.

A 2023 Parliamentary report had flagged 484 vacancies across the IIMs (out of 1,570 sanctioned posts). It urged permanent recruitment by the end of that year. Two years on, the numbers remain largely unchanged.

“They (temporary guest lecturers) are paid less, have insecure jobs, no social security benefits, and naturally their contribution is affected,” said Chaudhari of Jadavpur University. “Many teach at multiple institutions, which reduces their commitment to any single one—a “gig work” model that is deeply harming higher education.”

AIIMS & NIMHANS: Running on Fumes

In December 2023, union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya described AIIMS Delhi as a “lighthouse” of Indian healthcare—symbolising excellence, leadership, and public trust. 

Yet just eight months later, a parliamentary reply revealed a stark contradiction: 416 of 1,232 sanctioned faculty posts at AIIMS Delhi were lying vacant, amounting to a 33% shortfall in teaching staff at the country’s premier medical institute.

The crisis is not limited to Delhi. According to a Rajya Sabha reply to Unstarred Question No. 1701 (6 August 2024), the shortfall is nationwide. Across all AIIMS campuses, 1,874 teaching posts—33% of the total faculty strength—remain unfilled. 

The situation is the same  among non-teaching staff, where 15,609 support positions—or 28% of the sanctioned posts—are vacant. These gaps impact not just academics, but also patient care, hospital operations, and medical research.

A similar story is unfolding at NIMHANS Bengaluru, India's apex institution for mental health and neurosciences. 

In its 163rd report (March 2025), the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health noted that 30% of professor posts and 16% of assistant professor posts at NIMHANS were vacant. 

The committee flagged these shortages as serious concerns and called upon the ministry of health to devise and implement a “strategic recruitment and retention plan”. Whether such a plan exists—or is in progress—remains unclear, with no formal timeline or roadmap disclosed to date.

Central Schools Too Struggle For Teachers

The faculty crisis isn’t confined to universities—it extends deep into India’s public school system as well. 

On 23 July 2025, minister of state for education Jayant Chaudhary told the Rajya Sabha that Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) currently have 7,765 vacant teaching posts, while Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs)—residential schools for talented children from rural areas—are short by 4,323 teachers.

The shortages are especially acute in some of India’s largest states.

- Madhya Pradesh has 579 vacancies in KVs and 342 in JNVs.

- Karnataka reports 542 KV and 270 JNV vacancies.

- Odisha is missing 522 teachers in KVs and 259 in JNVs.

- West Bengal has 544 KV and 91 JNV teaching positions unfilled.

These are institutions specifically designed to serve children from underprivileged, rural, or marginalized backgrounds. 

Yet, like their higher education counterparts, they are beset by systemic hiring delays, a shrinking pool of applicants, and increasing reliance on short-term contracts or deputations.

Even Regulators Are Short-Staffed

Even India’s premier regulatory bodies for higher and technical education—the UGC and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)—are short-staffed, responses to our RTI responses reveal.

At the AICTE, tasked with ensuring quality standards, coordinating development, and providing a regulatory framework for technical institutions nationwide, only 37% of posts are filled, 132 of 209. 

At the UGC, established in 1956 to maintain and enhance standards of higher education, promote research, and ensure equitable access, 67% of posts are vacant, 509 of 763.

The Guru-Shishya Paradox

India’s ancient learning traditions were not born of institutions, but of teachers. Chanakya taught under trees. The Buddha offered dharma without a classroom. Adi Shankaracharya traversed the land debating and interpreting scripture. Eklavya sculpted a guru from clay.

Today, even as India builds institutions with air-conditioned lecture halls and smart classrooms, it cannot seem to find or retain enough faculty to populate them. There are more campuses—but fewer mentors.

“There’s no single, simple answer,” said Behar, chancellor of the Azim Premji university. “In any large-scale expansion, such problems are bound to arise. What matters is how each institution works to solve them. Some, like IIT Guwahati, IIT Gandhinagar, and IIM Jodhpur, have managed this well. Others have not.”

As India chases the Vishwaguru dream, the lesson from its own legacy appears clear: a nation cannot teach the world what it refuses to invest in at home.

(Suchak Patel is an independent writer.)

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