But Minister for Transport Ponnam Prabhakar ensures sanction of 38 assistant professors to the newly sanctioned University Engineering College in Husnabad
Whereas, the Satavahana University, established in the year 2008, does not have regular faculty, and only part-time faculty members are conducting classes
University College of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Karimnagar town, which has emerged as the top pharmacy in the state with several securing admissions in GPAT and NIPER, but the government is negligent for taking up a regular recruitment drive
KARIMNAGAR, OCTOBER 23, 2026: Even as the budding Satavahana University in Karimnagar is grappling with a faculty shortage and affecting higher education, Minister for Transport and BC Welfare Ponnam Prabhakar is giving more priority to the allocation of regular staff for the newly sanctioned University Engineering College, which was forcibly shifted to Husnabad.
Actually, the University Engineering College was sanctioned to the Satavahana University in Karimnagar town, but the Minister had used his ‘powers’ for obvious reasons and shifted the Engineering College to his Husnabad assembly segment. The college was sanctioned in March 2025 and started functioning from the academic year 2026-27 onwards, offering four B. Tech courses such as CSE, CSE (artificial intelligence), Information Technology and Electronics and Communication Engineering.
Recently, the Government has issued a GO for the recruitment of vacant assistant professors in various universities, including 49 for Satavahana University, but a major share of 38 assistant professors were being recruited for the University Engineering College, eight for the University Law College and only two for the Pharmacy College and only one for the Commerce Department.
Out of 11 assistant professors who are working as part-time lecturers at the University College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the government had accorded permission for recruitment of only two regular assistant professors in the fresh GO for recruitment and denied other regular posts.
On the other hand, several other departments of Satavahana University, such as Sociology, Economics, Botany, Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Food Science and Technology and Commerce and Management, are starved of regular faculty members, and only part-time lecturers conduct the classes.
Incidentally, the Urdu department is the only one in the University which is filled with regular staff, neglecting the English and Telugu departments. The majority of departments rely on temporary staff.
The shortage of staff was adversely affecting the quality of education, academic activities, research and students’ futures. Recruiting only a few faculty members would leave a substantial number of vacancies unfilled and further aggravate the problems facing higher education, said university part-time faculty members.
At a time when higher education policy speaks of excellence, innovation and global competitiveness, public universities are being asked to function under conditions that steadily erode their academic foundations. Buildings expand, regulations multiply, but the intellectual core weakens. The question is whether we are willing to fund them in a way that allows them to remain universities in any serious sense.
About the Author
