Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday asked vice chancellors of central universities to fill up over 6,000 vacant posts in mission mode by October.

The minister also set a deadline of September 10 for the universities for advertising the vacancies.

During his interaction with vice chancellors, Pradhan said 6,229 posts are vacant in universities, out of which 1,012 are in SC category, 592 in ST category, 1,767 posts in OBC category, 805 in EWS category and 355 in divyang category.

"Let us work on a mission mode to fill up the posts by October. There can be a few anomalies, but by September 10 all the universities should have advertised," he said .

Apart from representatives from 46 central universities, Minister of State for Education Subhash Sarkar, Higher Education Secretary Amit Khare, UGC Chairman D P Singh and senior officials of the ministry and UGC attended the meeting.

The minister said that there will be student rebellion and in a democracy there has to flexibility to accommodate.

"The onus of ensuring that teaching and learning is not compromised lies with the VCs. Universities should focus on bringing back on schedule the academic routine which had been disrupted by the pandemic in last two years," he said.

On reforms like four-year degree courses, Pradhan said that the universities have the autonomy to decide the roll-out strategy and as these reforms take time, universities should start consultations with teachers and students while preparing the framework for implementation from 2022.

Talking about creation of a collective framework by various agencies to fulfil the NEP''s vision of enhancing skill and vocational education, Pradhan noted that Japanese language should be an additional skill. "Suppose a postgraduate in English literature has also studied Japanese language, that person''s employability gets enhanced multifold in India itself."

"The amount of investment that is coming to India in the near future in the field of infrastructure and automobile will open up opportunities for our students with knowledge of Japanese. I hope the central universities will be pioneers in implementing the Academic Bank of Credit and schemes like multiple entry and exit," said the minister.

Addressing the participants, Pradhan said that Indian universities are cradles of creativity, innovation and opportunities.

"The New Education Policy, 2020 will play a crucial role in placing India at the top of the emerging new world order and as custodians of India’s destiny our universities should fulfil their responsibilities outlined in the NEP," he said.

"The minister said that our higher education institutions are key catalysts for promoting socio-economic development and for realising aspirations and national goals," he said.