1,310 posts of Professors lying vacant in Central Universities

New Delhi: There are 1,310 posts of Professors which are vacant in various Central Universities, as on September 1, 2015, the Ministry of Human Resource Development said today.

HRD minister Smriti Irani shared this information in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha adding that her ministry and University Grants Commission (UGC) have repeatedly written to Central Universities to expedite filling of vacancies of teachers and are continuously monitoring the process.

In a reply to another question, Irani said the percentage of girl candidates (out of total registered candidates) in undergraduate engineering Joint Entrance Exam (Main) has registered an increase from 26.48 per cent (in 2014) to 26.73 per cent (in 2015).

However, the percentage of girl candidates qualified for JEE (Advanced) has declined from 17.9 per cent (of the total candidates qualified for JEE (Advanced) in 2014 to 17.35 per cent in 2015, she added.

Responding to another question, the minister said there are several databases on publications from different countries in peer reviewed journals.

As per data available with one such database 'Web of Science', amongst BRICS countries, the share of India in publication in such journals in 2015, is 14.69 per cent while that of China is 64.23 per cent.