Anil is always delighted to meet his students out in the wild. But on this occasion, as he arrives to interview for a guest teacher’s job at a Delhi University college and sees a former pupil, he’s overcome by a sense of dismay and, in equal measure, dread.

The student, one of Anil’s first when he began teaching four years ago, has come for the same job. Anil has experience and a PhD to boot, his student has neither. That counts for little; either can land this gig. 

And it’s really only a gig that master and pupil are vying for, not that university teaching job of old, or even a decade ago—stable, decently paid, dignified. This is teaching as gig work—precarious, poorly paid, ungratifying. 

India’s public universities, put in ever-tightening financial fetters by the government, are increasingly employing teachers on short-term contracts rather than full-time. Delhi University, for example, has hired just under 500 permanent teachers since 2015, data from the education ministry shows, but an army of contract lecturers. Nearly 5,000 by one count.

They are typically appointed for a semester, extended for another, or three. But, eventually, always let go.

Anil is the archetype. He works by the hour, barely makes enough to support a family of three, and is racked by the persistent worry of losing his latest gig.

“The universities are just looking to save money,” says Anil, who asks not to use his full name lest he is identified by his employer. “A permanent teacher will earn Rs 90,000 a month. They can employ three guest lecturers for that price.”

What the universities save in money, their students lose in learning. 

“It has been a disaster for the integrated MSc courses,” says a faculty member at the University of Hyderabad, where temporary teachers mostly take undergraduate classes. “We have received a lot of complaints about teaching quality.”

Yes, it’s that kind of an education economy. And it’s unlikely to get better anytime soon. 

In 2018, the University Grants Commission (UGC), which regulates and funds higher education in the country, limited contract teachers to 10% of the faculty. The rule was observed more in breach until it was quietly dropped in January when the regulator released new draft guidelines, paving the way for universities to stuff rosters full of temporary teachers.