Bhubaneswar: In one of the largest recruitment drives of medical teachers in the state, the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) has invited applications for more than 300 assistant professors. The govt said the teacher hiring was required for the ongoing expansion of medical education and the opening of new medical colleges.The recruitment will be conducted for 314 assistant professors (broad speciality) in 24 different disciplines of Group-A, under the Odisha Medical Education Service cadre, for posting in govt medical college and hospitals (MCHs) under the health and family welfare department. Out of the 314 posts, the govt has reserved 107 posts for the ST (scheduled tribe) category, 65 for SCs (scheduled castes), 26 for SEBC (socially and economically backward classes), and 116 for the unreserved category.“The posts are purely temporary for the present and likely to be made permanent in the future,” read the official notification.The link for registration and submission of the online application shall be available from May 26 to June 26. Selection of candidates for recruitment to the posts of assistant professors shall be made on the basis of a written test to be conducted on Aug 17 in Cuttack. The written test shall be of 200 marks. As many as 200 questions will be in MCQ (multiple choice question) pattern with OMR evaluation. The duration of the exam is three hours. “Candidates who are native or resident of Odisha shall be given preference over candidates of other states. That is when two candidates secure equal marks in the recruitment and one of them is not a native or resident of Odisha, then out of the two, the candidate who is native or resident of Odisha shall be given preference for selection over the candidate who is not a native or resident of Odisha,” read the notification.According to the OPSC advertisement, in case of non-availability of eligible/suitable women candidates belonging to the respective categories, unfilled vacancies of that category shall be filled up by eligible or suitable male candidates of the same category.