- Tribal icon-named universities in Madhya Pradesh lack permanent faculty for hundreds of posts
- Krantisurya Tantya Bhil University runs 25,000 students on temporary teachers with no permanent staff
- Raja Shankar Shah University has all 100 teaching posts vacant, causing academic disruption
The names of tribal icons echo loudly in Madhya Pradesh during the election season. They are invoked in speeches, printed on banners, and held up as symbols of pride and inclusion. But once the votes are counted, the reverence appears to fade into silence. In Khargone district, that silence now hangs over Krantisurya Tantya Bhil University, a state university named after one of the most powerful symbols of tribal resistance. It has 25,000 students, 140 sanctioned teaching posts, and not a single permanent teacher in place.
In a written reply in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, Higher Education Minister Inder Singh Parmar admitted that all 140 academic posts at the university are vacant. These include 80 assistant professors, 40 associate professors, and 20 professors. The university is currently running undergraduate courses in agriculture, arts, commerce, and science, along with a postgraduate commerce program, but it is functioning entirely on temporary arrangements and deputation. Even the building itself is not permanent.
The disclosure came after Congress MLA Dr Jhuma Solanki questioned the government on how many posts were filled, how many remained vacant, and when recruitment would finally take place. The answer was devastating in its clarity: none of the teaching posts have been filled, and no timeline can be given for when they will be. For the 25,000 students enrolled there, that means the institution exists on paper and in name, but not in the way a university is supposed to exist with stable faculty, regular teaching, timely examinations, and an academic structure that actually functions.
Solanki has alleged that the consequences are already being borne by students. She said exams are not being conducted on time, results are delayed, many courses that students may want to pursue have not even been started, and even when examinations are held, mark sheets are often not issued. Without mark sheets, scholarships are getting stuck. She also pointed to the absence of a functioning executive body and asked if the university's own decision-making structure is incomplete, who is running it, and in whose interest?
Khargone is not an isolated case. In Chhindwara, Raja Shankar Shah University, another institution named after a tribal icon, reportedly has 100 sanctioned teaching posts, all lying vacant. Students there have begun speaking openly about the academic collapse unfolding behind the university's facade. Vishwajeet Pal, a first-year BTech student, said multiple lectures are routinely missed and several papers remain uncovered.
Yash Power, another student, said they have too many subjects and far too few faculty members, with only two teachers handling what should be a much larger load. The result is a model of higher education in which classrooms are open and admissions are active, but actual teaching is painfully thin.
The vice chancellor of Raja Shankar Shah University, Professor Indra Prasad Tripathi, has said the state government asked universities to submit action plans to fill vacant posts and that the institution has already done so. According to him, the target is 2027, with interviews expected in December 2026. That timeline, however, sharply collides with the political assurances coming from the minister. Inder Singh Parmar, Higher Education Minister, said the recruitment process will be completed in four to five months and that a Detailed Project Report (DPR) has been prepared for a building project in Khargone worth Rs 119 crore, with construction expected to begin soon.
A similar pattern has emerged at Krantiveer Tatya Tope University, where courses ranging from undergraduate arts, science, and commerce to agriculture and postgraduate programs are being run without permanent teaching appointments. AK Mugdal, acting registrar, has said that the university has already sent its staffing requirements to the government and that recruitment will begin soon, so there is availability in the coming academic session.
What makes the crisis difficult to dismiss as a one-off administrative delay is the scale revealed in another written Assembly reply. Across Madhya Pradesh's 17 government universities, 793 of the 1,069 sanctioned assistant professor posts are vacant. That means 74 per cent of all approved assistant professor positions remain unfilled. Only 276 assistant professors are currently carrying the teaching burden across the state's public university system. Five universities do not have a single assistant professor on their rolls.
Raja Shankar Shah University in Chhindwara, Krantiveer Tatya Tope University in Guna, Krantisurya Tantya Bhil University in Khargone, Maharaja Chhatrasal Bundelkhand University in Chhatarpur, and Rani Avantibai Lodhi University in Sagar are all operating without even one assistant professor.
The political context makes the neglect even more combustible. Madhya Pradesh's tribal population is estimated at around 22 per cent. Of the state's 230 Assembly seats, 84 are tribal-dominated, and 47 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Institutions named after tribal heroes are therefore not just educational spaces; they are also powerful political symbols.
The Madhya Pradesh government has repeatedly claimed that the state was among the first to implement the National Education Policy (NEP). On the ground, the picture is different. The NEP promises flexibility, multidisciplinary learning, and quality outcomes. But in several state universities, students are struggling to get regular classes, timely exams, results, mark sheets, and access to the courses they were promised.
