Andhra Pradesh promotes 118 Associate Professors to Professor Posts

The promotion and posting proposals received approval from Health Minister Y Satya Kumar Yadav, in accordance with prevailing service regulations that mandate filling vacant professor positions through the advancement of qualified associate professors.

According to The Times of India, officials from the ministry stated that 804 professor posts had been sanctioned across clinical, non-clinical and super-speciality wings, of which 262 positions, nearly 33 percent, remained unoccupied before the latest round of promotions.

As far as speciality departments are concerned, the workforce crunch is even more alarming, as there are nearly 155 sanctioned posts for professors in the state, out of which 100 are still lying vacant. Officials also revealed that only two doctors, one from the department of Paediatric Surgery and another from the Medical Oncology department, have secured promotions as professors in the super speciality department because there were no other eligible candidates who could meet the criteria for promotion as per the norms, reports The Daily.

According to the rules, a candidate needs a minimum of 3 years’ teaching experience as an associate professor to be eligible for a promotion. Expressing his concerns, Minister Satya Kumar Yadav pointed out that there has been a high rate of vacancy in super-speciality departments, especially in departments that had to face a considerably high amount of patients for advanced care.

Last year, Medical Dialogues reported that faculty shortage in Andhra Pradesh's Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) raised alarm, with 32% of eligible government doctors refusing promotions to Professor positions, despite 33% of GMC posts remaining vacant. Concerned by this alarming trend, Health Minister Y Satya Kumar Yadav has directed the Special Chief Secretary to implement measures to address faculty shortages and encourage doctors to take up promotions.