MDU battles acute shortage of teachers, non-teaching staff

Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak, an A+ grade university accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), is facing an acute shortage of faculty members and non-teaching employees.

Over 54 per cent posts of faculty members and more than 63 per cent posts of non-teaching employees/officials are lying vacant. According to information provided by the university administration in response to an Right to Information (RTI) application moved by Subhash, state convener of the Haryana Soochna Adhikar Manch, 205 of the 385 budgeted teaching posts at the university are vacant.

Similarly, 133 of the 234 faculty posts approved under the Self-Financing Scheme are also unfilled.

The strength of non-teaching staff is no better, with 1,102 of the 1,748 sanctioned posts lying vacant. "The RTI reply conceded that 71 faculty members retired between 2020 and October-2025, but no teachers have been appointed in their place," he said.

The gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that several teaching departments, including the Departments of History, Music and Sociology, were functioning without even a single regular faculty member, he said.

Sources pointed out that the university administration was trying to keep the show going by re-employing retired faculty members and assigning teaching work to research scholars (PhD students) in such departments.

"Such stop-gap arrangements can be employed for a limited period of time. These cannot continue forever. Faculty members must be appointed at state universities in the larger interest of students and higher education in general," said a professor, requesting anonymity.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Rajbir Singh, said the permission to recruit faculty members had been received from the government and the appointments would be made soon.