While a legal battle with the Union government has prevented the Tamil Nadu government from appointing vice-chancellors in many public universities, the institutions themselves currently face a major academic crisis due to rising vacancies in teaching staff.
More than 40% of sanctioned faculty positions, including those of professor, associate professor, and assistant professor, in 12 of 21 state universities are lying vacant, according to data sourced through Right to Information (RTI) Act applications in April 2025 and a representation submitted by the Tamil Nadu Federation of Universities Faculty Association (TANFUFA) to the state government on October 27.
In the remaining nine universities, the vacancies are in the 15-40% range, the data states. The universities include those under the higher education, health, law, and animal husbandry ministries.
In the 168-year-old University of Madras, 65% of sanctioned teaching posts are vacant. The corresponding numbers for Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University (TNDALU) is 46%, followed by Tamil Nadu Open University (53%), Anna University (45.44%), Bharathidasan University in Tiruchirapalli (49.57%) and Manonmaniam Sundaranar University in Tirunelveli (50%), the data shows.
The vacancies are set to swell with the impending retirement of a few more faculty, the universities indicated in their RTI responses.
Analysis of the data shows that the overall vacancy percentage would look a lot worse if not for significant appointments in the assistant professor scale, most of which were made in 2014 – the last major recruitment drive conducted by state universities.
The RTI response also reveals that some universities even have departments functioning without a single permanent teaching faculty. For instance, in TNDALU, the departments of Human Rights and Duties Education, Crime and Forensic Law and Property Law don’t have a single professor.
Similarly, TNOU has 10 such departments, the Tamil University in Thanjavur has two and the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University has one.
A senior professor at the University of Madras said that the usual procedure after a faculty member retires is for the vice-chancellor to recruit new staff through due procedure.
However, owing to the precarious financial position of universities, vice-chancellors have been asked to take prior sanctions from the state government. The recruitment is approved only if financially viable, the professor said. He added that in the last few years, even recruitment proposals have come to a standstill, as many universities do not have vice-chancellors.
Multiple professors TNM spoke to said that departments frequently function with only one or two permanent faculty members. Professors say they are managing the situation by hiring faculty on a contract basis.
Alternatively, departments have been merged and as a stop-gap solution, professors from other disciplines have been “deputed” to manage understaffed departments.
For instance, at Madurai Kamarajar University (MKU), a journalism professor was asked to head the School of Economics, while a sociology professor headed the School of Education, a serving academic said.
Bharatidasan University runs 32 departments but has just four faculty in the rank of professor. TNOU has a sanctioned strength of 11 professors but has only two. Similarly, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University has only three professors against a sanctioned strength of 18, while Alagappa University in Karaikudi has only seven professors out of 31 sanctioned positions.
To tide over the vacancies, Anna University recently hired 20 retired professors as professors emeritus and has planned to recruit “professors of practice” from the industry.
Multiple serving and retired academics from across Tamil Nadu said that such a state of affairs has directly impacted the quality of teaching, research output, and other allied activities like the development of syllabi and curricula.
If this were to continue, it would eventually be detrimental to the growth and ranking of the institutions, affect the overall academic climate and weaken the higher education system in the state, they further said.
In some cases, the faculty shortage has affected the number of courses offered by the institute. For instance, the number of courses offered by TNOU has dropped from 80 in 2017 to just 30 now, a serving academic said.
The impact
Understanding how faculty vacancies affect universities requires a glimpse into their roles.
According to former vice-chancellor of University of Madras P Duraisamy, university professors must conduct and drive cutting-edge research, guide PhD scholars, conduct classes for postgraduate students, steer academic excellence by playing a crucial part in the drafting of university curriculum and syllabus, and oversee the affiliation process of colleges.
Duraisamy said that the UGC recommends a faculty strength of at least one professor, two associates and two to three assistant professors in departments that offer PG courses.
Currently, departments facing a shortfall are hiring lecturers on a contract basis, which brings down the quality, given their inexperience and comparatively lesser exposure, he added. The contract lecturers are also ineligible for research grants or guideship, Duraisamy also said.
Multiple professors TNM spoke to echoed how vacancies have translated into longer teaching hours, which eats into the time they allocate for research and guideship.
A senior professor in a southern Tamil Nadu university said his teaching hours have increased from the mandated 14 hours a week to around 20. “Professors are overstretched and working beyond class hours to manage guideship, their own research which might include travel, and other professional commitments,” he said.
Additionally, the shortfall in senior faculty translates into fewer available PhD guides, which burdens serving professors. “Guiding five research scholars at a time is sustainable. But currently professors are taking on more scholars and are unable to provide quality guidance,” said a senior professor of a Chennai-based university.
Duraisamy said that the quality and quantity of research output is important for a university, as it brings in funds through grants and has a bearing on ranking – underscoring the repercussions of inexperienced faculty members.
Additionally, university professors also work with decision-making bodies like the Board of Studies (BoS), affiliation committees, etc., to draft the curriculum and syllabus followed by affiliated colleges.
“Experienced professors can bring the latest trends and developments into the curriculum and syllabus followed by affiliated colleges. Assistant professors or guest faculty may not be able to contribute similarly due to limited exposure and experience,” Duraisamy said.
The state government’s plan
While Higher Education secretary P Shankar IAS declined to comment, saying he was busy, sources from multiple universities said the government had collected data and has planned to fill the vacancies through a unified recruitment process via the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB). Similarly, the non-teaching faculty vacancies will be filled through the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC), the sources added.
This impending move has not gone down well with university professors, as they feel it undermines the institute’s academic and administrative independence. Historically, universities have recruited their staff through independent advertisements and interviews after approval from the vice-chancellor and administrative bodies like the syndicate.
An omnibus recruitment would also not be in line with the specific talent required by each university’s customised positions for interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary posts, professors said.
For example, a professor at a university in central Tamil Nadu pointed out how a zoology degree offered by an institute in a coastal district would include topics on the marine ecosystem, while one offered by a landlocked district like Coimbatore would incorporate topics from forest ecologies.
Similarly, a university offering a bioelectronics course would want the selection panel to include subject experts from physics and chemistry. The professor questioned if a unified agency like the TRB would be able to incorporate such nuances in their selection process.
The bogey of private universities
Academics are also worried that a drop in standards in public universities would gradually shift students towards private universities, which, apart from attracting the best academic talent, are also advantaged by relaxed retirement rules for faculty.
“In Tamil Nadu, the retirement age for professors is 60 years, while in a private university it is 65. This means that the best and most experienced minds from Tamil Nadu’s public education system are hired by private institutes for prestigious posts which add to their brand value and ranking,” three serving and retired professors told TNM.
TANFUFA’s representation to the Tamil Nadu government cites the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments’ recent decisions to raise the retirement age of professors to 65, urging a similar move in the state. This would ensure continued academic excellence, quality mentoring and research productivity in public universities, the representation said.
Emphasising the need to strengthen public universities, Duraisamy told TNM that private universities usually only run courses that are commercially viable, but the state has a duty to offer courses that shape public discourse and serve a social need, such as anthropology, archaeology, and history.