KU's Law students complain of faculty shortage, academics hit

Srinagar, Apr 9: The students pursuing their Law degree (BALLB) at the Kashmir University (KU) on Wednesday complained that the department was facing shortage of faculty which has caused disruptions in their academics.

A group of students complained to Greater Kashmir that no regular class work was being conducted as the department has acute shortage of the faculty.

The students from different semesters said that their studies have been adversely affected as their classes are not being conducted despite the culmination of their exams in March.

The students said that they approached the higher ups in the varsity only to receive verbal assurances while nothing concrete was done on ground.

"We went to the higher-ups a number of times only to receive false assurances," a group of students said.

The crises have emerged as the University of Kashmir has disengaged all the contractual faculty members who were teaching students for the last many years. However, after disengaging the contractual faculty members the varsity administration has not started the process to engage new contractual faculty for the departments in need.

"Our department is completely dependent on the contractual faculty as it has only five to six permanent faculty members who cannot cater to all the semesters and subjects," the students said.

The students said their exam of the previous semester including practicals, culminated in the first week of last month.

"But it has happened for the first time that the table for our current semester has been released without any mention about the teachers assigned their subjects.

"We have six subjects per semester in BA LLB but we have only one teacher available," the students said.

They said the date sheet for their current semester exams has also been notified but they are yet to attend the classes. "The exams are scheduled from July, but classes are yet to start," the students said.

The students said the varsity expelled all the contractual faculty due to which they are facing the crisis.

"We need specialised teachers, and due to this our department is completely dependent on contractual teachers. While the KU has disengaged the contractual faculty, no steps are being taken to recruit new faces due to which the students have been left at the receiving end," the students said.

Registrar Kashmir University, Prof Naseer Iqbal when contacted acknowledged the problem and said some contractual faculty members went to court and got stay for their continuation.

"This issue created problems. But we will take some immediate decision in this regard because we won't let students face any problem," Registrar KU told Greater Kashmir.

Meanwhile, a senior faculty member at the KU said after obtaining stay from court, the same contractual faculty was not allowed to continue and neither the Varsity took any steps to engage new faculty on contract basis.