Recruitment to 5,500 assistant professor posts in grant-in-aid colleges in the state will be completed by June 2026, Minister of Higher and Technical Education Chandrakant Patil assured while speaking to journalists in Pune on April 1. Previously in September 2025, Patil had said that the recruitment process would be completed by March 2026, however the timeline could not be met.

Patil said on Wednesday, “5500 approvals for new professor posts (grant-in-aid colleges) were given. It is the biggest recruitment in the last 20-25 years. In state universities, recruitment approval for 700 professors was given…Till June, be it college professors or university professors, they will be recruited and must start teaching in classes.” A similar announcement was made in the state legislature in March as well.

In March end, at the Senate meet of the Savitribai Phule Pune University, Vice Chancellor Suresh Gosavi made a similar announcement and said that the 111 posts first advertised by the university in 2023 will finally be filled by June.

The recruitment process in the state has been stalled for the past few years, leading to a faculty crunch in public universities and grant-in-aid colleges.

In September 2025, speaking at the 28th Convocation Ceremony of the Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded, Patil had said that the recruitment would be completed by March 2026.

He had said, “Everything has been sanctioned (for university professor recruitment). Advertisements have been put out, applications have been received, scrutiny has been done, only interviews and joining is remaining.
Additionally, in senior colleges, recruitment of 5,500 professors and 2900 non-teaching staff has been approved… A GR for this will be released soon and as soon as that happens, till next March, a total of 5500 professors will be recruited to all colleges according to their student strength.”

However, major changes in recruitment rules were made in February 2026 by the state government, leading to further delay in the process.