Why teaching at India’s public universities now looks like gig work

01/01/2026 11 min Episodio 654
Why teaching at India’s public universities now looks like gig work

Listen "Why teaching at India’s public universities now looks like gig work"

Episode Synopsis


Teaching at India’s public universities no longer offers the certainty it once did. Permanent jobs have become scarce, while short term contracts have quietly filled the gap. Many teachers are now hired semester by semester, paid per lecture, and required to reapply for their jobs again and again. This shift has reshaped academic careers and changed how universities function day to day. What caused this shift? And what does it say about the future of higher education and university teaching as a career choice?Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.