Tapan Kumar Sethi
Odisha’s higher-educational system has entered a moral and political crisis, resulting in a persistent educational crisis. Behind the grand promises of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the reality of university and college campuses tells a story of hopelessness—one where guest faculty, the invisible lifeline of classrooms, struggle each day against poverty, humiliation, and state neglect.
Across six major state universities—Utkal, Ravenshaw, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Rama Devi Women’s, and Gangadhar Meher University—and other public universities, as well as hundreds of degree colleges in Odisha, an estimated 963 guest faculty members keep the higher-education system functioning. They teach, examine papers, conduct exam duty, guide dissertations, and mentor students, often performing the same duties as permanent faculty, yet remain denied stability, recognition, or even timely pay. Many possess PhDs, NET qualifications, and years of teaching experience, yet survive on a per-class honorarium that barely covers travel and rent.
After the government’s supposed “hike” in 2024 from ₹500 to ₹700 per class, several universities, including Vikram Dev University, Jeypore, have not implemented the new rate. Teachers there protested in October 2024, declaring, “We teach every day, but our future is never certain.”
The NEP 2020 was introduced as a landmark change in “empowering teachers” and “revitalizing learning.” But on the ground, it has become a weapon of neoliberal governance, justifying flexible, temporary appointments while eroding job security. The state’s continued dependence on guest teachers is not administrative helplessness—it is a policy choice rooted in cost-cutting and privatization.
Under successive governments, Odisha’s universities face a severe faculty shortage. According to Ommcom News (July 26, 2024), 1,187 of 1,911 sanctioned posts across 17 state universities remain vacant. Similarly, The Times of India (Sept 19, 2025) reported that nearly 68 percent of teaching positions in Odisha’s public universities are unfilled. Many newer institutions, including Odia University (Satyabadi) and Vikram Dev University (Jeypore), are functioning entirely with guest faculty. Furthermore, Edex Live (July 9, 2024) revealed that 18 new government degree colleges in educationally backward districts are operating solely with guest lecturers, many still functioning from school buildings due to a lack of infrastructure.
Odisha has filled thousands of sanctioned posts with temporary appointments rather than regular recruitment. Between 2017 and 2024, less than 12% of faculty vacancies in state universities were permanently filled, according to Higher Education Department data. The rest were outsourced, contractual, or “guest” positions. This systematic replacement of permanent teachers with insecure labour is structural inequality in practice—a deliberate violation of the constitutional ideals of equality and dignity of labour.
A guest lecturer in a government college/university typically earns ₹20,000–₹25,000 a month, whereas a guest faculty in the rank of assistant professor earns ₹30,000-₹35,000, depending on workload, roughly one-fourth of what a permanent faculty member earns. Payment delays of three to six months are common. No pension, no maternity leave, no medical insurance, and no research grants. For most, even accessing university email IDs or staff rooms is a privilege they are denied. One guest faculty member from Utkal University said, “My salary for one semester comes after the next one begins. It feels like we are ghosts in our own departments.”
Many travel daily from villages to teach in city colleges/universities, spending half their income on transport. When classes are cancelled or semesters delayed, they receive nothing. This is not merely bureaucratic inefficiency—it is institutionalized injustice. A state that celebrates “Mission Shakti” and “youth empowerment” has left its most educated youth trapped in cycles of unpaid labour. In the vocabulary of political economy, this is “academic proletarianization”—the conversion of knowledge workers into replaceable, low-wage labourers.
The government’s 2025 decision to reappoint retired professors as guest faculty has ignited outrage. When thousands of qualified young PhD candidates remain unemployed, the state has chosen to recruit those who have already benefited from full careers and privileges. This type of policy, defended as a “stop-gap arrangement,” in fact signifies a clear violation of social justice. The Orissa High Court, questioning the state’s policy of appointing retired professors as guest faculty, asked pointedly, “Where will the educated youth go?” (Ommcom News, July 2024).
The Court’s question reveals the hypocrisy of a society that preaches opportunities while practicing exclusion. The state promotes an aristocratic hierarchy in the academic world by emphasizing retirees over new scholars—a phenomenon sociologists refer to as the Reproduction of Privilege. The aspirations of the new generation are being erased while the interests of the already powerful are being protected, revealing a disturbing political bias. Rather than revitalizing academia with new ideas, the educational institutions of Odisha are appointing people who now mentor from the space that should belong to the young.
Most guest faculty face not only economic insecurity but also social invisibility. They face severe challenges in everyday university life, often excluded from departmental meetings, academic committees, and research collaborations. Most are denied access to institutional privileges, including journals or plagiarism-checking software like Turnitin, because of their status. Despite having equal qualifications, they are regarded as second-class in the eyes of permanent faculty. One guest faculty member from Rama Devi Women’s University reveals, “We do everything—guide, teach, evaluate—but when decisions are made, we are invisible or unnoticed by higher authority.”
Low pay is only one aspect of the unfairness; the bigger trauma lies in everyday humiliation, a hidden violence occurring within departments. Guest faculty often face public disrespect on campus, perceived as transient or inferior outsiders. During debates and discussions on important issues in university auditoriums or lecture halls, they feel completely reluctant to talk and sit quietly, often in the back row. Their hard labour remains unnoticed and unappreciated, even when they perform vital non-teaching tasks like organizing tests, keeping attendance, creating schedules, and making timetables for the smooth running of departmental business. One faculty member from Utkal University expressed his disillusionment:
“We do all the academic and administrative work. But when a permanent teacher enters the room, we must stand and listen. We cannot question, we cannot protest. Silence is our only survival.”
Such events, now considered normal, happen day to day with guest faculty. Many accept this hierarchical subjugation because one act of disobedience could prevent their contract from being renewed. In this way, the classroom, once a symbol of equality and discussion, turns into a theater of silent submission as psychological control takes the place of physical force.
Women guest faculty face a dual burden of gendered discrimination and precarious employment. Due to the absence of appropriate grievance redressal mechanisms in universities, problems relating to harassment, lack of maternity leave, and childcare force many to give up academia entirely—a sad reality of our educational system. Such systemic exclusion violates not only Article 14 (Right to Equality) of the Indian Constitution but also the Directive Principles that mandate humane and dignified working conditions.
Educational justice cannot exist where teachers live in a state of fear. When an educator is unsure about tomorrow’s pay or contract renewal, classroom energy collapses. Students witness this anxiety, which corrodes the teacher-student relationship. In a democratic classroom, teacher-student interaction is indispensable and central to learning.
In remote districts of Odisha, such as Koraput, Kalahandi, and Keonjhar, where infrastructure and digital connectivity are poor, guest faculty are the only lifeline of higher education. They act as administrators, counsellors, and mentors, often without recognition. Yet when their contracts expire mid-semester, entire courses remain unfinished, research guidance becomes impossible, and students lose continuity in their academic journey. This is not only an economic loss but a democratic failure.
Education should be considered the foundation of equality, yet in Odisha, it mirrors the very inequality it should dismantle. The crisis of guest faculty is not a separate administrative error; it is a direct violation of constitutional morality and ethics. The state has violated the rights to equality, dignity, and fair opportunity granted by Articles 14, 16, and 21 of the Constitution by normalizing temporary employment for qualified instructors. The Directive Principle (Article 41), which mandates that the state secure the right to work and education under humane conditions, has also been violated. When higher education in Odisha uses unemployment as a justification for cheap academic labour, it not only betrays the spirit of the Constitution but also actively ensures inequality.
Odisha’s higher education minister often speaks of “transforming education” and “inclusive education for everyone,” but transformation cannot occur when its foundation is built on exploitation and disrespect. This model of governance reflects the neoliberal state—one that privatizes profit, socializes risk, and treats teachers as disposable assets. The very heart of academic autonomy, respect, and intellectual freedom is being replaced by bureaucratic control and economic precarity.
Recently, protests have taken place by guest faculty across Odisha, from Dhananidhar University in Keonjhar to Bikram Dev University in Koraput. Their demands are simple: timely payment, fair remuneration, and respect. However, their voices rarely reach the corridors of power, and the state’s response has been silence. There are no clear guidelines for regularization, no roadmap for converting long-term guest positions into permanent ones. Even as crores are spent on university infrastructure, smart classrooms, and administrative expansion, the guest faculty who sustain learning remain unpaid for months. This asymmetry reveals a deep structural inequality—resources and recognition flow upward, while those who keep classrooms alive are left invisible. It is a clear manifestation of what political theorists call “state-sponsored marginality.”
To rebuild trust in the education system, Odisha must first restore dignity in the classroom. Guest faculty deserve:
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Regular employment following a set period of service
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Equal compensation for equal work, as upheld by the Supreme Court in multiple judgments
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Access to research grants, internet platforms, and institutional representation
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Psychological and social support, particularly for women and early-career scholars.
Universities must give up the bureaucratic mindset that treats teachers as temporary workers. Education is based on moral and civic commitment—it is not a marketplace; it builds a nation. When the state reduces education to a budget line, it loses its democratic credibility. A society that neglects its teachers betrays its own future.
The guest faculty dilemma in Odisha is not only a question of pay slips and contracts—it is a question of what kind of democracy we want to build. In a democratic system, knowledge providers must be respected because only they can nurture future civic-minded citizens. Real reform begins not in conference halls but in the classroom, where justice must live daily. The promise of NEP 2020—equality, excellence, and inclusion—will remain hollow until guest faculty are treated with fairness, stability, and dignity.
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Tapan Kumar Sethi is an Assistant Professor(Guest) in the Political Science Department, Rama Devi Women’s University, Bhubaneswar Odisha.
