Faculty crunch forces JNTU Hyderabad to slash seats in engineering, management courses

Hyderabad: A severe shortage of faculty has compelled the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) College of Engineering Hyderabad to slash the number of seats in key courses like BTech in chemical engineering and geoinformatics.

Starting from the 2025-26 academic year, the number of seats in these courses will be halved from the existing 60 to 30.“We are reducing the intake as there was no recruitment in branches like chemical engineering in the last decade or so. After reducing intake, we will be seeking NBA accreditation for the chemical engineering course,” said Venkata Narasimha Reddy Guduru, principal of the college. He confirmed that seats in BTech in geoinformatics will also be reduced in the coming academic year.Along with these courses, the college will also scrap the Integrated Dual Degree Programmes (IDP), which were started with approval from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Meanwhile, the School of Management Studies, JNTUH, has also reduced seats in the Bachelor of Business Administration in Data Analytics and has discontinued the BBA (Regular) programme.“Availability of faculty is the biggest issue.

Also, hostel infrastructure is a concern. So, campus colleges are discontinuing a few courses,” said K Venkateswara Rao, registrar, JNTUH. He, however, said that as and when faculty is recruited, seats in these courses, along with other courses in demand, can be enhanced.The decision is said to be driven by problems faced during AICTE inspections or when the colleges are going for accreditations. Members of the All University Teachers Association said that faculty shortage is a major issue in all state universities but pointed out that closing courses is not a solution.“Most state universities have 70% of sanctioned posts vacant. The solution is to recruit faculty, not shut down or reduce the number of seats. It doesn’t make any sense to reduce seats in core engineering courses. Colleges should instead hire part-time faculty and consultants to run courses,” said B Manohar from the association.