Mumbai University PG departments crumble under staff crunch, enrollment and research take a hit

MUMBAI: When Pranay Kale (name changed) signed up for MA in Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Mumbai (MU), he was brimming with expectations. The youngster, hailing from a Kolhapur village, had imagined the course to fast-track his entry into one of the many media houses headquartered in the country's financial capital, preferably covering politics.

It was not to be. When he graduated in 2022, he had little in terms of job prospects and had to undergo the usual rigmarole of endless internships before settling in a ‘content writer’ role at a publication.

While aware of the rapidly shrinking space in the journalism job market, Kale primarily blames the university for not doing enough to prepare him.

“I wouldn’t recommend the programme to anyone. Despite being located in a city where most of the media organisations have a presence, we didn’t get any exposure. There was little practical training, and the curriculum was heavy on public relations and Bollywood. Nobody told us about, much less taught, basic journalism tools such as the InScript keyboard. In an industry that relies on their own network for recruitment, I had no reference to cite,” he said.

Kale’s disappointment is shared by many who in recent years enrolled at one of 50-odd postgraduate (PG) departments and centres at MU, one of the oldest and largest state public universities in the country. Facing an acute shortage of senior staff, paucity of resources and administrative neglect, the (PG) departments are a far cry from being the nerve centre of varsity’s research and development activity, with little to distinguish it from its affiliated colleges.

Even as MU’s footprint has grown exponentially, its own departments have stagnated. With only a handful of new teaching and non-teaching posts created in the past four decades, and barely any regular appointments in the last 10 years, the departments are functioning with a skeletal staff. The enrollment in PG programmes has remained stagnant for years, while the research has been severely hit.

Mumbai University: History and legacy

MU was among the first three modern universities – Calcutta and Madras Universities being the other two – created by the British Raj in 1857, a year otherwise known for the sepoy mutiny.

Today, the university’s jurisdiction spreads across seven districts along Maharashtra’s 700 km-long Western coastline. The count of its affiliated colleges has more than tripled from 285 in 1985 to over 900. However, even as MU swelled in size, its reputation took a beating. After missing the earlier editions of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), the varsity figured in the list at 81st position in 2019, several places below Calcutta (5th) and Madras (20th), and even Pune (10th) universities. It has managed to climb up to the 61st place in the overall list and 18th spot among universities in the latest NIRF rankings.

The university’s NIRF submissions show that enrollment to two-year PG courses has marginally increased from 5,202 in 2019 to 5,435 in 2024, while the number of PhD candidates has jumped from 1,008 to 1,686. By comparison, the varsity’s cumulative enrollment figure reached 8.5 lakh in 2022-23 from 6.5 lakh in 2011-12.

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However, not all MU departments are in dire straits. The varsity has made it to the QS World University Rankings by Subject, albeit in grouped rank levels, for three disciplines – business and management studies; petroleum engineering; and pharmacy and pharmacology.

Two of the varsity’s departments have grown to become premier institutes – the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) and the Institute of Chemical Technology. The latter has now been detached from MU and designated a deemed-to-be university.

MU: Shortage of staff, teachers

Currently, the biggest challenge is staff shortage. Since 1985, the state government has added a mere eight new posts for non-teaching staff to the 1,311 sanctioned; the 368 teaching posts have virtually remained the same.

To make matters worse, in 2015, the Maharashtra government froze both creation of new posts and recruitment to vacant ones in an effort to bring financial stability to the state. While the ban was lifted in 2018, most of the vacant posts remained unfilled while new vacancies were created due to retirements.

In response to two Right to Information (RTI) queries filed by former MU senate member Sanjay Vairal in 2023, the university informed that of 1,319 sanctioned non-teaching positions, less than half – 643 – were filled. There were vacancies across all staffing levels, with as many as 56 out of 92 Group 'A', or the top-most positions, vacant. Only 11 out 18 deputy registrars and 13 out of 48 assistant registrars, both key positions in administration, were in place.

The situation is worse for teachers. Of 368 sanctioned teaching posts, only 142 or 39% were occupied. The professors' posts had the highest number of vacancies, with only 15 employed against 87 posts. Of 34 PG departments, as many as 22 were without a single full-time professor. More than half the associate professor and assistant professor posts were vacant.

In July 2024, MU invited applications for 152 teaching posts across its departments and conducted colleges. However, the recruitment process was halted at the directions of the state governor’s office following allegations of irregularities. The governor, who is also chancellor to all state universities, asked the government and universities to consider carrying out faculty recruitment through the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) or a separate independent recruitment board.

MU leadership gap

The absence of senior academics has created a leadership gap at the departments, which are forced to hire entry-level teachers to ensure classroom teaching for master’s students doesn’t suffer.

“No replacements have been appointed for the retirees. As a result, the university lacks leadership in certain specialisations. PG departments are supposed to provide leadership to colleges, but they are themselves becoming like college departments. Teachers come and teach but there’s little research taking place,” said Anil Karnik, a former professor at MU’s chemistry department.

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The ad-hoc hirings has drained the university resources, leaving little funds for research and developmental activities. To add to MU’s woes, the state government, since 2004, withheld 25% salary grants meant for MU employees after it was found that the university had illegally transferred employees from its payroll to the state's. While the state has asked MU to cleanse the roster, the issue remains caught up in the bureaucratic web even after two decades.

“There are still some good people working at the university, but the administration has totally collapsed. If one needs science equipment, by the time funding is approved, the financial year gets over. Besides, the budget provisions are reduced every year compared to the inflation in the cost of consumables and equipment,” said Karnik.

Research suffers as the university leadership is burdened with administrative responsibilities, especially the examination and assessment of students at affiliated colleges, he suggested. Plus, most members come from affiliated colleges with limited exposure and experience.

Mumbai University students’ take

According to students, the lack of basic amenities and infrastructure at the university’s Vidyanagri campus in Mumbai’s Kalina area, where most of the academic departments are housed, is also affecting the academic environment.

For example, the university has limited space for accommodating outstation students. Only two new hostels, one for girls and another for international students, have been added to the existing five dormitories after 1982. Their combined capacity is only around 850. Some are without mess, WiFi and laundry facilities. There are constant complaints about the quality of the food and inadequate water supply means the university has to rely on tankers.

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“If the students’ basic needs are not met, how can they be expected to perform academically,” said Siddhant Malvankar, a student at the economics department, who has been raising these issues for the past two years.

The teaching community has not only shrunk, it is also plagued by “infighting” and “pettiness”. “Many of the professors seek to have their name added as co-author, even if they didn't have any contribution. Students have to oblige to avoid trouble. The monthly progress reports of research are not signed on time, while students are deployed for personal work,” he said.

Karnik, however, points out that the research quality has also suffered due to linking of teacher’s promotions to their Academic Performance Index (API) scores, forcing them to get published in sub-par journals.

However, some like Sandip Kamble, who studies at the university’s political science and civics department, had a better experience. “During my course, I had an opportunity to interact with political persons. Our teachers were qualified and knowledgeable. They also helped me land an internship during the course,” he said.

According to Vairal, the university suffers from a “lack of vision” among its leadership and even members of its statutory bodies. “No one talks about important issues such as teachers’ appointments. They just want to promote colleges to attain autonomy so that they can become private universities. This will bring back the ‘gurukul’ system, with only those with means able to study at universities,” he said.