Bhubaneswar: In Odisha University of Technology and Research (OUTR), Bhubaneswar, 103 teaching posts are lying vacant against the sanctioned strength of 184, affecting research and teaching work. Similarly, out of 99 non-academic posts in the university, 58 posts are lying vacant.Last Friday, Skill Development and Technical Education Minister Sampad Chandra Swain had told the state Assembly that an advertisement had been issued in 2024 to fill 92 teaching posts, which were vacant at that time. “But due to legal constraints, these posts have not been filled. Therefore, temporary guest lecturers have been appointed to meet the teaching requirements,” Swain said in his reply in the state assembly on Friday.OUTR vice-chancellor Vibhuti Bhushan Biswal said they have completed the teachers’ recruitment process that started in 2024, but are waiting for the Supreme Court order to publish the results. “Some candidates had approached the court over issues in the recruitment process. After getting the court order, we will issue appointment letters to the successful candidates. Then the vacancy issue will be resolved,” he said.Similarly, for non-teaching posts, only 41 out of the total sanctioned 99 posts have been filled, and retired government employees have been appointed temporarily as per the requirement.The Minister said that necessary steps are being taken to fill the teaching and non-teaching posts as per the prevailing rules.A university teacher said that teaching and research work is being affected due to shortage of faculty members. “Regular faculty members are overburdened with teaching, research, collaboration and administrative work. Due to work pressure, they are unable to focus on innovation and the quality of teaching and research gets compromised. To guide research scholars, we need regular teachers, as guest faculty members cannot guide PhD scholars,” he said.A BTech student from the Computer Science Engineering department said 81 regular teachers are not enough to teach or guide around 7,000 students. “Guest faculty cannot handle all the work related to research, innovation and collaboration. We need regular teachers to run the Center of Excellence. If more qualified teachers are appointed, we will get benefits in various fields including placements and research projects. We request the government to fill the teaching posts,” he said.The College of Engineering and Technology, established in 1981, was granted unitary university status on October 8, 2021 and became OUTR. Earlier, it was functioning under Biju Patnaik University of Technology since 2002.