There is an acute shortage of human resources in the higher education sector of the state. The recruitment process has been hampered due to several people filing cases against the Odisha University Act (2020) in various courts. As a result, such a deficient situation has arisen in the higher education sector of the state. According to a recent Right to Information (RTI) filing, 47 percent of the professor, associate professor and assistant professor posts at the University of Utah are vacant. There are 257 posts in important departments such as history, physics, commerce, mathematics etc. while only 138 are working. That means 119 posts are now vacant. However, 47 to 34 professors, 76 to 40 associate professors and 134 to 45 assistant professors are working. Not only in the education department, but also in the personnel sector, there are many vacancies. However, 9 out of 13 posts in different departments of Group-A are vacant. Similarly, 58 out of 113 posts in Group ‘B’, 276 out of 415 posts in Group ‘C’ and 331 out of 439 posts in Group ‘D’ are vacant. On the other hand, the University of Utah has received more than 41 crores in 2019 and more than 33 crores in 2021 under the National Higher Education Scheme (RUSA). Sabita Acharya, the chancellor of the University of Utah, said that she does not have the power to make appointments. He said that the Odisha People’s Service Commission (OPSC) will manage the recruitment after the court case.
