The shrinking dental teaching job market - and falling salaries

Your services are no longer required by this institution. We found an alternative employee who accepts a significantly lower salary for working longer hours (or pretending to, which is also acceptable), and we don't care a sh!t about how well you teach or how dedicated you are to the institution.

No, notices terminating one's services with a dental college are not exactly worded that way. But behind every faculty member who is unceremoniously sacked, the thought process is the same.

Times were, when a faculty member who was willing to work full time and devote her / his energy and effort towards the betterment of the department and the dental college, was difficult to come by. And colleges cherished and held on to such people. Salaries were adequate (but certainly nowhere near corporate-head-honcho levels), and people willingly put in their 100%. It was also imperative for dental colleges to prove during inspections that their faculty members actually worked full time.

Then came another era - one where any institution can get away without needing to prove that faculty members do, indeed, work full time. Along with that came a flood of potentially qualified teachers, who were desperately seeking employment - irrespective of the salary level. They willingly lend their names to the institution and appear for inspections, to fulfil the institution's need to complete the numbers game. In return, these missing-for-the-rest-of-the year faculty members stand to gain experience of having worked as a teacher, and are on their way to time bound promotions. 4 years to jump from Senior Lecturer to Reader. Another 5 years to become a full Professor. 3 more years, and they can become post-graduate teachers. All without actually being inside their departments for any more than 2 weeks in a year!

Every time a faculty member is due for promotion (and, hopefully, a consequent salary hike), her / his services are no longer required by the institution. If it is a Senior Lecturer wanting to become a Reader - hey, we already have enough Readers! We'll just find another Senior Lecturer who accepts a lesser salary than yours! At other times, when the already present Readers in the department prove to be more expensive than the new one, they are asked to leave. Unceremoniously!

All this is but natural. Nature abhors vacuum - but nature does not mind replacing wheat with chaff.