An academic crisis has erupted across the regional campuses and constituent colleges of Anna University, as 328 qualified teaching fellows complain of what they describe as forced unemployment and illegal wage denial.
Despite the reopening of colleges in January, the teaching fellows—many with up to 17 years of service—have been kept on a forced waitlist for over a month.
The Teaching Fellows Association alleged that the crisis was a deliberately precipitated act of administrative sabotage. According to the association, the Registrar of Anna University issued undocumented oral instructions to the Deans of 16 campuses, explicitly forbidding teaching fellows from handling classes.
To justify this exclusion, the administration has reportedly resorted to artificially shrinking the teaching workload, they alleged.
Some of the strategies, they said were, combining Tamil and English medium sections in core branches like Civil and Mechanical Engineering; Restructuring department to reduce faculty requirements below sanctioned AICTE levels; Using new integrated theory-cum-lab papers as a pretext to slash teaching hours, often forcing 60 students into labs equipped for only 20.
The crisis is deepening due to its legal implications, they stated. Many of the protesting educators are protected by specific orders from the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court, which recognised their right to regularisation and pay parity, they said.
“This is an effective nullification of court orders through extra-legal means,” the Association stated in a formal memorandum.
Particularly concerning was the plight of 78 fellows who hold direct favourable orders from the Madras High Court but are still being denied work and their January salaries, they added.
The memorandum of the association painted a grim picture of systemic economic exploitation. Despite holding qualifications on par with regular Assistant Professors, these fellows have seen their wages stagnate at a mere ₹27,000 per month since 2020, the teachers stated.
According to the protesters, Minister for Higher Education Govi Cheziaan claimed the actions were being driven solely by the University Registrar, leaving the government unable to proceed.
A recent directive to hire new faculty on an hourly basis to cover residual workloads has been viewed as the final blow, threatening to replace decade-long experienced educators with precarious, short-term labour, they noted.
As the sit-in protest continues, the protesters said, the academic future of thousands of students hangs in the balance.
“With core subjects remaining untaught for over a month and internal assessment schedules disrupted, the academic continuity of one of India’s premier technical universities is facing a total breakdown,” they noted.
The teaching fellows maintained that their protest was a compelled response to a systemic failure of governance that prioritises administrative tactics over student’s learning and judicial authority.
Published – February 04, 2026 07:34 pm IST
