How higher education fails its guest faculty

As the 2024-2025 academic year commenced on August 1, discussions surrounding the appointment of guest faculty resumed in government colleges and those affiliated with state universities. The reappointment of guest faculty appointed for the 2023-2024 academic year, whose term ended last week, hinges on a government order with no set date. Last year, the recruitment process began in September and concluded in December, leaving colleges to manage with the available faculty in the interim.

The centralised appointment process, completed online, follows guidelines set by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to determine applicant eligibility. The minimum qualifications include a postgraduate degree and passing the UGC/NET, with a PhD being desirable. Those with only a postgraduate degree are appointed if qualified candidates are unavailable. Faculty members are allocated at least 15 teaching hours per week for commerce, arts, and humanities courses, while subjects requiring lab work are allotted 19 hours. The consolidated salary ranges from Rs 38,000 to Rs 42,000, depending on experience and qualifications. Faculty can take one casual leave day per month and have job security for 10 months or until the end of the academic year, after which they are relieved.

On paper, the process appears transparent and clear. The consolidated salary and teaching hours were determined after a five-month-long resistance from guest faculty. However, there is no significant improvement in the situation for these faculty members. The delay and uncertainty of the process hang like a sword over their heads. Thousands of guest faculty across the state are more concerned about the appointment process than focussing on their academic roles. When basic survival is at stake, intellectual pursuits seem ambitious, if not impractical, making it ridiculous to expect academic commitment to be non-transactional.

Upskilling is a trending term and practice across industries today. However, guest faculty lack such support systems, as attending faculty development programmes or refresher courses is optional. Most struggle to find workspace with little or no motivation left to upgrade their skills. Reports indicate that many college labs remain unused due to a lack of skilled faculty to operate the equipment, particularly if the course is taught by guest faculty. Either they lack the skills to work with the equipment, or there is no faculty to use the lab due to delays in the appointment process.

The financial implications of attending faculty development programmes cannot be ignored. When guest faculty are paid only for 10 months of teaching per academic year, payments are delayed, and there is no external financial support for upskilling; they cannot afford to attend these programmes. While online resources are available, not every discipline has entered the virtual world, and many first-generation learners who have entered the workforce lack access to necessary skills or infrastructure.

Rarely do guest faculty have the opportunity to share their educational experiences or teaching anxieties with senior faculty. They also lack opportunities to be mentored by senior faculty, as administrators do not create platforms or occasions to address these needs. A generation of academicians in the higher education sector have no visible external or internal support systems to kindle personal academic hunger or sharpen intellectual instincts. Expecting such academics to foster a vibrant, critical-thinking, problem-solving younger generation is ambitious.

Beyond teaching, the academic world relies on the assessment of learners. Internal assignments are conducted by the faculty teaching the course. When guest faculty are neither exposed to contemporary assessment methods nor mentored by senior faculty, memory-driven tests and assessments become the norm. For guest faculty, assessing learners becomes a chore to comply with requirements, and evaluating end-term examinations is seen as an opportunity to earn rather than anything else. In departments primarily served by guest faculty, administration cannot depend on them for administrative responsibilities. Each college has a lengthy, complex documentation process for accreditation, in addition to regular administrative tasks. Guest faculty might be expected to submit documents, but participating in different committees or motivating teams for the greater good is unlikely.

Teaching is often considered a personal calling and a noble profession worldwide; however, unless a holistic approach is adopted to address the implications of being a guest faculty member, higher education risks losing a generation of bright academicians to the transactions of survival.

(The writer is an associate professor, Christ deemed to be University, Bengaluru)