Jamia Faculty Appointments: Contractual Positions Turned into Guest Positions Without Corrigendum

Something seems amiss with the appointment of the faculty members in Jamia Millia Islamia. In July, 2018, there were three advertisements for the appointment of assistant professors on contractual and guest basis. As per the advertisements, total number of vacancies were 127 for contractual positions and 175 for guest teachers.

In an unanticipated turn of events, when the candidates started appearing for the interviews, they were told that all the contractual positions might be converted into guest without even issuing any corrigendum against the advertisement till date.

The difference between a contractual and a guest faculty in Jamia Millia Islamia is that a contractual faculty gets a consolidated salary of Rs. 60,000, and it is counted as teaching experience. However, guest teachers are given honorarium of Rs. 1000 per lecture with a maximum limit of 25 lectures, without being counted as experience. As far as workload is concerned, in both positions teachers have to teach two papers. Sometimes, a guest teacher takes more than 25 lectures, but officially, the number is shown 25 only. What is also despicable is that the honorarium for guest faculty has not been enhanced in last two decades, and nor has it been considered in the seventh pay commission.

Though the interviews for the contractual positions are still going on, the university administration has not yet come out with any official clarification despite the anxious queries from the candidates. 

Ironically, most of the teaching faculty members in the selection committee are unaware of this arbitrary decision by the university, and many have also expressed shock and displeasure for such erratic decisions during the time of the interviews. The decision has been imposed violating all norms of functioning in a public university. 

Aberrantly, the university is appointing contractual faculty as per the advertisement in science departments, whereas the social science departments are compelled to accept the arbitrary decision of appointing guest faculty without any prior or public notice. 

Allegations of the hidden agenda of nepotism in the recruitment cell have started surfacing. Hundreds of candidates who appeared for the 127 contract position interviews have been allegedly discouraged and harassed to spread nepotism. The reason cited for the conversion of contractual faculty positions into guest, is an anonymous court case about which there is no news available in public, and no information has been revealed by the Jamia administration. Furthermore, there is no corrigendum published by the university in this regard. Without having any knowledge of the details of this ‘case’, there is now an overlapping of ad hoc, contractual and guest positions. 

Ad hoc position in Delhi University is completely different from the contractual ones in Jamia. If the contractual position is defined through the difference between permanent and non-permanent, then the guest position is also a contractual one. Hence, without these clarifications, a central university is experimenting and playing with the future of thousands of candidates who are appearing for interviews. This news was dropped like a bomb on the candidates during the time of the interviews, who were abruptly asked to join as the guest faculty. They were left with no option but to concede. 

There is a growing discontent among the teaching staff of Jamia who believe that the UGC and MHRD should intervene in the matter at the earliest and reinstate the recruitments as per the advertisements.