Since specialists are harder to come by, conditions imposed on the induction of specialists, such as their being of a particular socio-economic denomination, make the recruitment of such experts harder still. This explains the human resource development ministry’s decision to drop the proposal to reserve seats for SCs, STs and other backward classes in faculty recruitment at the Indian Institutes of Technology. There is no arguing against the need for equal opportunity of education for all, and reservations may be the best instrument in many cases, especially where there’s a dichotomy of means and merit. However, reservations in faculty are a subtler matter and call for a more nuanced approach.

The quality education that a policy of quotas tries to ensure is available to all depends upon, and comes from, the specialised learning of the faculty. While the access to higher education of a general or specialised kind involves the question of opportunity and social justice, imparting that education is a matter of delivery. If the producers of the teaching that defines our best institutions fail to deliver as per the standards hitherto, then the whole question of access to quality education is moot.

Too many reserved faculty seats lie unoccupied at Central universities because of the lack of candidates. Of late, the problem has been aggravated by the extension of faculty quotas from the entry level to higher posts and promotions. As Parliament gets ready to debate the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Reservation in posts and services) Bill, 2008 in February this year, it should look into this problem faced by the universities. And, after all, if the Central government intends to expand the number of “world-class” universities — with one more in each state, according to some reports — does this count as implicit acknowledgement that those, too, will have to have unencumbered hiring policies?