Job profiles flood UGC's job portal

The academic job portal launched recently by the University Grants Commission is flooded with job seekers, and within a week of its launch, more than 7,500 candidates have already posted their profiles on the website. However, the number of vacancies posted on the portal is less than 10.

In a bid to help students in getting specific type of employment and higher educational institutions in hiring the appropriate person, UGC took an initiative to launch a job portal. The portal is designed in a way that will serve both the job seekers and employers. While it will help students to create their academic profiles and bring attention to universities, colleges and other potential employers, it will also enable the employers to post job vacancies.

Initially, NET (National Eligibility Test), SET (State Eligibility Test) and PhD qualified candidates will be able to benefit from the portal. This has been done following large-scaleunemployment among the NET, PhD qualified candidates over the past few years. Gradually, candidates seeking jobs in education sector will be able to get information about a suitable job.

Linking higher education with employment is the need of the hour. The job portal will help generate employability especially among NET, JRF qualified candidates who are hunting a job. In June 2012, as many as 43,957 of the 5,71,627 candidates who sat for NET qualified the examination. Of this, 3,625 candidates have qualified for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF). Most of them are yet to be appointed. For instance, in Uttar Pradesh, a total of 519 posts in state universities, 974 in 136 government colleges and 2,300 in 331 government-aided colleges are lying vacant.

According to UGC officials, the portal will also help employers to verify NET qualified candidates. The portal will also provide for browsing, searching and filtering academic profiles created by qualified candidates on a number of parameters. Besides, the portal facilitates candidates to register and create their profile online.

Till date, 3,871 NET qualified candidates, 1,321 NET-JRF candidates, 720 SET candidates and 1,783 PhD candidates have already registered. However, the number of jobs posted includes one each for assistant professor, assistant librarian and web developer, and two each for lecturer and principal.

source: TIMES OF INDIA