There is a dire need to recruit 500 more professors in colleges to implement the National Education policy (NEP) 2020 in Himachal Pradesh, according to the delegates from the hill state participating in an academic conference in Haryana's Kurukshetra.

In a release issued here on Saturday, the office-bearers of the Himachal Pradesh Government College Teachers' Association (HGCTA), who are participating in the ongoing 32nd academic conference organised by the All India federation of University and College Teachers' Organisations (AIFUCTO), said around 100 colleges of the 133 in the state are without regular principals, 50 colleges are functioning from private premises and around 30 have only two or three professors.

Informing that Himachal Pradesh is going to be the first state to implement the NEP in colleges from the current academic session, HGCTA general secretary R L Sharma cautioned that the implementation of the policy in haste, without the required infrastructure and a sufficient number of teachers, could be disastrous.

Without proper administration and infrastructure, it is impossible to implement the NEP from this session, Sharma said while stressing the need for dialogue and deliberations between teachers and policymakers to chalk out the pros and cons of the policy before its implementation.

The delegates from across the country at the conference raised serious concerns over an "onslaught" on higher education "from all corners". The University Grants Commission (UGC) is issuing notices to hold seminars on topics that are "nowhere near to reality and logic", they said.

The theme of the conference being organised from March 17 to 19 is "75 Years of Independence: State of Higher Education in India". More than 2,000 delegates from universities and colleges across the country are attending the conference to deliberate upon the issues and challenges facing higher education in the context of the implementation of the NEP 2020.