Early-career academics in India are quietly walking away from university research, yet this shift has received little public attention. Every year, many newly trained Ph.D. holders step out of academia, despite once aspiring to lives centred on teaching, reading, and original thinking.
Instead of university careers, these scholars now move toward think tanks, NGOs, EdTech companies, corporate research roles, or civil services preparation. Some drift into unrelated jobs, uncertain about the future but firm in their decision to leave academia. For them, the university no longer represents a meaningful or sustainable path.
The reasons lie in the changing nature of Indian universities. Over the past decade, institutions have transformed into compliance-driven workplaces. Rankings, accreditation scores, and performance metrics now dominate academic life. As a result, scholars spend more time filling forms and meeting deadlines than pursuing deep research.
What once promised intellectual freedom and community now feels restrictive. Young academics find that curiosity-driven inquiry has given way to checklist-based productivity. The gap between the imagined scholarly life and institutional reality has grown too wide to ignore.
Consequently, early-career academics in India increasingly question whether universities still value original thought. Their departure signals not individual failure, but a systemic crisis—one that risks draining Indian higher education of intellectual depth and long-term innovation.
