In the current scenario of world ranking of universities and national-level debate about the status of Indian universities struggling to get into at least the top 200 is a matter of great concern, necessitating urgent higher education reforms.
Reforms at an individual and institutional level can only result in sporadic excellence. System-built higher education reforms alone can make a “quantum jump in quality”. The quality of university is determined by quality of teachers, who make it a fertile soil of knowledge by perpetuating quality.
Since teacher maturation and upgrading quality became imminent, the UGC notified the “Regulations on Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and Other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education, 2010”. This regulation, besides providing a compendium of all UGC norms related to teachers, evolved an Academic Performance Indicator (API) for appointment and promotion of teachers. These APIs are objective indicators grouped under: (a) Teaching—learning, evaluation-related activities, (b) Co-curricular, extension and profession-related activities, and (c) Research and academic contributions.
This will create a system to ensure that all teachers are present in their departments throughout the working hours, efficiently discharging their duties under the above three areas and facilitate academic productivity.
A scoring weightage formula has been proposed, setting up minimum annual score requirement for every teacher in each criteria which would be cumulatively considered at the time of promotion/selection. The entire system has been designated as the Performance Based Appraisal System (PBAS) supported by structured-cum-evidence-based proforma combining self and institutional appraisal system with equal participation of the potential candidate/teacher and institutional machinery of appointment/promotion.
The API-based PBAS was aimed at bringing in a paradigm shift from the era of selection of teachers influenced by extraneous factors, including the whimsical approach of certain vice-chancellors to an era of objectivity and transparency. Besides, it eliminated promotions based on mere years-of-service and focus on academic performance.
Although, these regulations were notified after a consultative process with all stakeholders, there is still resistance from one section of teacher association and a few higher education experts to the API system. The points: (a) teacher freedom and university autonomy should not be curtailed and (b) API system has paved the way for proliferation of sub-standard journals and mediocre quality publications.
The need of the hour is accountability-linked autonomy, not unmonitored freedom. The regulations provide the API system as a template framework of objective academic parameters which can be tailored by each university without diluting scoring pattern. For the first time in India, research is made integral component of teacher performance and at least 75 per cent of the 6,99,464 teachers on rolls during 2011-2012 are making their first publication because of this.
In view of this, a transient phase of mediocre quality articles is inevitable. The best way forward is to motivate these entry-level teachers and first generation research publishers to improve their quality of research through innovative and effective faculty development programmes along with performance-linked incentive system.
After a period of renewed resistance, the regulations are currently slated for reinforced implementation, thanks to the Ministry for Human Resource Development.
This dynamic process, if implemented with due diligence, teacher maturation will materialise in all spheres of university activity and a ‘quantum jump’ in the overall quality of higher education comparable to global standards could be anticipated in the next five years.
profspt@gmail.com
The writer is former V-C of Madras University