Presidency’s plan to recruit NRI faculty runs into visa norms

The Presidency University is facing a tough time in recruiting full-time NRI faculty with the central government disallowing work and visa permit for permanent stay.

"Two professors, one from UK and another from Bangladesh, in the field of sociology and philosophy, respectively, have shown keen interest in joining Presidency as full-time teachers. We have given them appointments as visiting faculty, as we cannot take them as full-time teachers.

"The central government does not allow work permit and visa permit to stay in Bengal. I have requested the state education minister to look into the matter and suggest ways so that best NRI faculty could be retained in Presidency University," chairman, Presidency University Mentor Group, Sugata Bose said after the Presidency Council meeting today.

The state government has assured us that it will speak with the Union HRD ministry in this regard, said Bose, adding he will also discuss the matter with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

University officials added that till now out of 100 faculty recruited for the post of assistant professors, 65 professors have been inducted and the recruitment process will be completed this year.

Meanwhile, for the post of five distinguished "chairs", the Presidency University authorities will seek applications from professors with exceptional academic qualifications in the field of natural science, inter-cultural and peace studies in social science, in the field of economics, history and political science, philosophy and in literature. The qualification criterion is mentioned in the third report of the Presidency Mentor Group.

However, questions have been raised regarding the distinguished chair's salary, which is higher than that of the Vice-Chancellor.

According to the recommendations of the PMG, a distinguished professor will get a salary of around Rs 1.6 lakh while a V-C's pay package is around Rs 80,000.

Bose, however, added that a professor of sociology, Prasanta Roy, has been selected for the post of distinguished chair.

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