Rajarata Varsity: Low salaries prevent professors, lecturers from applying
The Rajarata University unions said yesterday there had not been a single applicant for university vacancies for professors and senior lecturers in some faculties that had been advertised by the university in the past few years due to the low salaries given to university teachers.
The Rajarata University Teachers Association said the Social Sciences Faculty and Management Faculty had annually advertised vacancies for academic professionals about three times a year but that there had been no response at all.
The Association President P.D.N.K Palihena said the Management Faculty of the Rajarata University had only one professor and lecturers were scarce. He said there was an increasing demand for university teachers because the number of students being recruited each year was on the rise.
“There has not been a single applicant. The reason they do
There has not been a single applicant. The reason they do not want to apply for a job in Rajarata is because of the distance and difficulty in travelling and another reason being that the salaries are not enough for them
not want to apply for a job in Rajarata is because of the distance and difficulty in travelling and another reason being that the salaries are not enough for them,” Palihena said.
He said that most senior lecturers and professors were involved in consultancy services from which they gained an income. He said that shifting to a university that required a lot of travelling meant less access to their consultancy services which would lead them to lose incomes earned through consultancy services.
“It is because of this that we keep requesting for higher salaries. We cannot recruit or retain staff because the salaries earned by teaching are very little,” he said. He said academics would not leave other lucrative opportunities to work at the Rajarata University where wages were inadequate.