UNIVERSITY AND ITS ACCOUNTABILITY
[Accountability . Reporting System . Annual reviews.
Criteria for Assessment of Educational Institutions]
16.0 ACCOUNTABILITY The University's role in the society and its objectives having been explained elsewhere in the report, it is now necessary to establish a system to ensure as to how much and how far the University has accomplished its purpose. This assurance is, in fact, imminent on two dimensions, i.e.,
1. The University to clarify to the Society, at large, what it has done during every nominated period (normally every year) in terms of accomplishment of its objectives.
2. Likewise, the functioneries within the system to explain tothe Management Board, what they have done during thenominated period towards accomplishment of the University's overall objectives.
This kind of review and evaluation process is a well established practice of management and the Universities could safely follow a similar system.
When such review of reports is done periodically, proper scope of retrospection is made available. The Universities can get the feed back from the society of the latter's satisfaction or otherwise with the performance of the Universities and their role accomplishment. The Universities can take advantage of such feed back to take corrective actions required for a better performance during the ensuing period.
At the same time, the review procedure, within the University, requiring the individual functional departments to render action plans and reports, will enable the departments to know their strengths and weaknesses periodically and make such adjustments, so that the future period can be more effective.
WE FEEL THAT THE DEFICIENCY OF THE PRESENT SYSTEN OF MANAGEMENT IS THE ABSENCE OF ANY SYSTEMATIC METHOD OF REPORTING AND EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE OF THE UNIVERSITY. THE SOCIETY HAS INVESTED PRECIOUS RESOURCES IN BUILDING UP THE GREAT INSTITUTIONS OF HIHGER LEARNING. IT IS, ENTILTED TO DEMAND THAT THE MEMBERS OF THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY BE MADE ACCOUNTABLE IN CONCRETE VISIBLE TERMS.
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This Chapter deals with the above aspects,
16.0.1 REPORTING SYSTEM The University system should provide scope periodically to:
[a] Render a report to the society, of what it has done during the specified period; and
[b] Ensure, through a reporting system from within, knowledge of what each functionary has done during the specified period.
16.0.2 ACADEMIC PLAN The objectives of the University, to be prescribed during a. nominated period, should first be drawn up in the form of a SCHEDULE OF ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES, WHICH MAY BE CALLED THE ACADEMIC PLAN. This document is to define the plan of activities for the ensuing period, based on which every functionery can delineate his tasks according to specified dates and time. Similarly, this document could serve as a yardstick to see whether all those activities that were planned, have been accomplished within the adopted time frames. Though it is necessary to ensure this aspect qualitatively the same purpose can be achieved by verifying quantitatively through statistical information.
The Academic Plan should be a. well thought out document, bearing in mind,
[a] the qualitative output required to be achieved, but, translated in terms of teaching days' and working hours'.
[b] the teaching staff and other facilitating factors available for the teaching sections.
[c] the priorities, defined in the national and regional plans relating to higher education and tasks expected from it.
THE UNIVERSITY SHOULD ALSO DRAW UP AN ACADEMIC CALENDER EVERY YEAR listing the dates for the beginning and end of different academic processes, such as Admissions, Registration for Ph.D. programmes, Teaching, Examinations, Declaration of results, issue of mark-sheets, award of degrees/certificates, etc.
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The Academic Plan and the Academic Calender should be made available well in advance, say, at least one month ahead of the commencement of any academic session. THE ACADEMIC CALENDER SHOULD BE WIDELY PUBLICISED AND EVERY STUDENT SHOULD BE INFORMED ABOUT IT
16.0.3 ANNUAL REVIEWS The activities of the University should be annually reviewed essentially in the following dimensions. This is a suggestive list and many more activities could be added by each University depending on its objectives.
[1] Accomplishments of the existing courses of studies.
[2] Introduction of new courses of study.
[3] Number of teaching days* devoted by each department, college and recognised institution.
[4] Number of teaching hours* devoted for each of the subjects in every discipline.
[5] Number of research studies (doctoral, projects and individual] undertaken, in each discipline.
[6] Number of such research studies completed, in each discipline.
[7] Number of graduates, post-graduates, doctoral fellows, produced classified by divisions/grades and percentages of total number appeared.
[8] New teaching programmes introduced.
[9] Extension activities carried out, in application areas, and-user-wise, like, Agriculture, Rural areas, Industries, National Laboratories, etc.
[10] Extension activities carried out, in the areas of extension of education such as Adult Education, Continuing Education Population Education, Environmental Education etc.
[11] Information about autonomy granted to Colleges, Departments, etc.
[12] Activities to encourage education of women, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, minorities, physically handicapped, etc,
* Keeping the norms prescribed by the UGC in view.
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[13] Financial budgets and financial statements.
[14] Innovations including development of new teaching methods, new courses, etc.
[15] Preparation of teaching materials like case studies, hand outs, etc.
[16] R&D efforts in academic development and in development of new technologies.
THE ANNUAL REVIEW REPORT SHOULD BE PREPARED BY EVERY UNIVERSITY AND SUBMITTED THROUGH THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL, TO THE COURT, THE STATE COUNCIL FOR HIGHER EDUCATION/UGC AND THE APPROPRIATE LEGISLATURE. COLLEGES SHOULD ALSO PRESENT SUCH REPORTS TO THEIR GOVERNING BODIES AND THE UNIVERSITIES
16.0.4 INTERNAL REPORTING AND REVIEW SYSTEM We have already observed that the University organisation should be functionally grouped in such a manner that the objectives, of the University are adequately achieved and carefully monitored. Nevertheless, there should be an internal review system which could ensure that each functional group accomplished its purpose during specified periods according to the specified standards. With this in view, we recommend that:
1. Each department should draw out their action plan for the academic year in consonance with the Academic Plan of the University. The action plan should define clearly:
(a] What are the PRIME ACTION AREAS in which the focus of attention is drawn; and
[b] What are the RESULT ORIENTED ACTIVITIES under each Prime Action Area, that are to be accomplished during the period.
2. The Action plans should be prepared and submitted to the Vice-Chancellor, well in advance, at least six to eight weeks ahead of the commencement of the next academic session.
3. The Vice-Chancellor on receipt of the Action Plan of each Department (including each educational institution under the University's affiliation, may through the forum of the Planning and Monitoring Board, form such expert committees to review each of the action plans, assess their feasibility in line with facilities available or to be incorporated, make such amends as might be ncessary and confirm the same to the Department/institution concerned before the start of the next session.
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4. Again, at the completion of the academic period, each department or college, should submit a report, detailing the activities accomplished against each activity planned. This report should also have the scope to explain as to why a. particular activity could not be completed and what were the facilitating and constraining factors that sprang lip during the period of review.
5. These reports are to be submitted to the Vice- Chancellor, who in turn, shall refer them to the same expert committees which were involved in formulating the action plan.
6. The Dean (Planning and Monitoring) should consolidate these reports and send a consolidated report to the Vice-Chancellor, highlighting the outcomes and achievements as also pointing out the short-comings during the period.
16.1 ACCOUNTABILITY OF TEACHING AND OTHER STAFF The Universities should also keep a list of performance norms of every member of teaching and non-teaching staff, subject to periodic reviews. Each superior officer/head of the department should do these reviews periodically.
We understand that the UGC has already recommended the selfappraisal machanism for teachers. In view of this we have not deliberated on this issue,
16.2 FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY Each Faculty/Institute/School/Centre and every Department thereof should be provided with a Budget in the beginning of every year. This Budget should be evolved through discussions on proposals submitted by the concerned Department/Faculty, etc., At the end of every quarter, the concerned Dean / Head should submit a report in a prescribed form, on the expenditure incurred against the allocated Budget as also about additional funds generated/spent by the concerned Faculty/Department. The release of funds in subsequent quarters should be contingent upon the submission of the Report about the preceding quarter. A consolidated Financial Report for the entire University should be prepared by the Finance Officer every quarter, and submitted to the Finance Committee/Executive Council.
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16.3 CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT OF INSITITUTIONAL PERFORMANCE The success of the Educational Institutions is to be judged by the achievements of its alumni, of its students and the faculty. Higher the position held by alumni and the higher their achievements greater will be the success of the institution. For a proper assessment of these achievements, methods have to be evolved for collecting information about the employment of its graduates, promotions earned by them, eminent/senior positions held by its alumni, distinctions and awards conferred on them and other similar statistics. This will have to be done faculty/discipline-wise.
6.3.1 ALUMNI PERFORMANCE The nature and level of employment secured by the graduates passing out from the Universities/Colleges, the length of time between the date of passing and date of first employment, the level of position secured and the emoluments received in the first job, are some of the alumni performance aspects about which hardly any information is collected. Some of the technical/professional disciplines do, however, arrange for the placement of their students and collect information about their employment. This has to be done for all disciplines. The statistics maintained by the employment exchanges could also throw some light on the situation. No information, whatsoever, is maintained about the future progress of the Alumni. Information will therefore, have to be specialty collected.
Feed-back could also be obtained from large employers about the performance of graduates of the particular institution. Statistics of employment agencies such as Public Service Commissions, Banks' Selection Boards etc. could be obtained and analysed to give the feed- back to Universities.
16.3.2 FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS The achievements of the faculty could be judged in terms of the awards and recognitions received, higher positions secured out side the institution, offices held in National/Regional Organisations, both academic and nonacademic etc. The research out-put and publications by faculty would also be an indication of the success of the University.
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For instance, if University faculty members have secured positions like Directors of Institutes, Vice-Chancellors of Universities, Senior Executives in large Corporations and Memberships of Boards of Directors and such other positions, or established flourishing businesses, provided employment to a number of educated persons, handicapped people etc, all these could be considered achievements by the Faculty.
16.3.3 EXTERNAL GENERAL IMAGE The success of an institution is best judged by how far it is known in the out-side world for the scholarship and attainments of its alumni or faculty. It should be found out how far the institution has helped to create innovative ideas, new discoveries etc. not only in Science and Technology, Literature, Arts etc., but also in Public Relations, Administration and Management, Social Work, and other aspects of social life. The contribution of the institution in the process of national development and in development of new kinds of industrial, business and social/cultural organisations should also be assessed.
The general image of the institution in the outside world (including that in the mind of large employers Governmental and Non-Governmental) is one of the surest indicators of the performance of an educational institution. This could be found out only through image surveys conducted by an external nonofficial agency. Such surveys could be conducted once in 5/7 years.
16.3.4 WORKING OF THE INSTITUTIONS There are several internal matters also which could be used for appraising performance of the educational institutions. These may relate to:
[1] Students- their admission, examination, achievements in games and sports, cultural activities etc.,
[2] Faculty Members.
[3] Internal Working.
[1] STUDENTS [a] Admission: The Analysis of the admission processes should be regularly carried out, for Post-graduate programmes, professional and other Under-graduate courses seperately. Such an analysis should include number of applications received and their geographical
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distribution, number of students selected - from amongst the graduates of the University, from the State in which the University/College is located, from the neighboring States, far away States and from foreign countries. It may also be worthwhile to find out how many of the students to whom admission was offered, joined the courses and completed them successfully in the minimum prescribed time. Non-joiners, dropouts, failures would naturally portray poor performance.
[b] Examinations: The analysis should be made regularly about the time taken for the examinations (coursewise), the holding of different examinations on time or otherwise, disruptions if any, use of unfair practices by the examinees, if any, and other matters relating to examinations. A very careful qualitative analysis should also be carried out, of the results of different examinations and also of the comments of the external examiners.
The examination results of the students taught by different teachers would also give some idea. of their performance.
[C] Research: Another good indication will be about research and publications by faculty members. A qualitative analysis of such work should be carried out periodically with the help of external experts.
Another area of performance would be research for Doctoral Degrees. Information should be available about number of applications received for fresh registration and its University-wise/geographical distribution.
An analysis of the total number of students registered for Doctoral Degrees should be classified into classintervals of less than 2 years, 2-3, 3-5, and more than 5 years. The statistics about the Doctoral Theses submitted should be classified into number awarded, number revised, and number rejected faculty-wise.
[d] Games & Sports, Cultural activities etc.: Information should be regularly collected about the participation of the University students in Games and Sports, Cultural and other extra curricular activities such as debates, tours and excursions, cultural meets etc., The analysis should be seperately made of participation at State, National and Inter-national levels together with the achievements and failures.
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FACULTY Information should be available about number of posts filled and kept vacant every year. It should be found out whether the University attracts sufficient number from out side by analysing the number of applications received and the selections made. Larger the number of applications received from outside and larger the number of those selected from outside the University, the better would be the performance.
Information should also be regularly collected about resignations and departures of teachers for taking up assignments elsewhere, with reasons therefor. If teachers leave to join higher positions it will be a sign of good performance. But if, they leave just out of dis- satisfaction or to join similar position out side, it would be indicative of poor performance.
Conference and Seminars are an important activity in which academics engagethemselves. Information about such activities organised within the University or by faculty members out-side the University should be available. The participation of faculty members in Conferences / Seminars out-side the University at Regional / National International levels should also be analysed. A new dimenison has been added during the recent years, about the faculty members participating in Summer Schools, Faculty Development Programmes, Programmes run by Academic Staff Colleges and extension activities etc. Information about this should also be regularly collected.
INTERNAL WORKING Information about the internal working of the institution would also reveal performance.
Working Days The analysis of the faculty-wise number of working teaching days should be made indicating time taken by vacations, holidays, closures, and other modes of non-working.
Funds Raised Besides the students and faculty activities mentioned above, the success of the institution could also be judged by the quantum of funds raised by it in the form of Chairs, Endowments, Donations for Prizes and Medals, Scholarships etc., research grants, external funded projects and consultancy assignments etc.,
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Development Programmes The institutions' performance in completing various construction programmes, campus and garden development, equipment procurement and in achieving targets of development could be more easily monitored as they are generally time-bound and budget bound.
If the proper assessment of performance of the educational institutions is to be carried out a machinery has to be created within the University as well as at UGC/State Councils level for collecting information on the matters indicated above and such other matters which may be considered appropriate. It may be worthwhile to hold a small Seminar for deciding upon the areas of performance and the Criteria for assessment thereof.
16.3.5 FINAL EVALUATION Once the Criteria have been evolved they may be assigned different weights with a total of 100 or 1000. The performance may then be evaluated by assigning points for each area of performance, out of the total points allotted to each factor. This may be done on the basis of available data.' The scoring may be undertaken by 3 to 5 unbiased knowledgeable individuals. Each of them may be requested to independently allocate points to the institution being assessed by him/her. The total score for each valuer would be out of 100/1000 and the grand total out of 300/3000 to 500/5000 depending on the number of assessors, The average of these would then be shown as percentage points scored. A classification of the kind illustrated below may then be made of all the institutions so asessed:
A 80% and above - Outstanding
B 60% to 80% - Very Good
C 50% to 60% - Good
D 40% to 50% - Mediocre
E 30% to 40% - Poor
F Below 30% - Very Poor
Institutions falling in the last three categories should be warned and to the last category indication be given that its performance will be watched for one more year and if no improvement was made, it could be disaffiliated or closed. The D & E categories should be put on probation and closely watched for three years and helped to come up to at
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least "C". If they fail, closure may have to be considered. The "A" Category institutions should be specially rewarded by providing additional resources to develop along their desired channels. Category "B" should also deserve special attention.
The aim of such exercises should be that in the course of 5 to 10 years no institution remains below "C" and most should be in 'B' category. As times passes, the criteria and scoring could be made tighter so that institutions would always endeavour to remain above water.
We would however, like to point out that such an exercise is not only very difficult to undertake but is full of pitfalls. The most difficult part would be the action to be taken against institutions falling below category "C". The same kinds of problems and pressures would have to be faced, as are being faced to-day in granting affiliations to mediocre colleges.
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION - INDIVIDUALS/INSTITUTIONS In Chapter 6, and in this Chapter, we have discussed about the criteria. for assessment of individual and Institutional performance. We also give some factors for evaluation in Appendix 16.
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APPENDIX 16
EVALUATION OF INSTITUTIONS - FACTORS
A. GENERAL 1. Whether the institution has got all the necessary infrastructure in terms of men and materials ?
2. Whether the teachers are duly qualified and equipped to discharge their onerous responsibilities ?
3. Whether the Library and Laboratories are fully equipped to cater to the needs of the teachers/students?
4 Whether facilities for co-curricular activities like N.S.S, N.C.C, Planning Forum, Arts Society, Science Club, Sports and Games, Social Forestry etc. are available ?
5. Whether there is adequate provision for quality research ?
6. Whether there is regularity of academic sessions ? How many days in a year, instruction could be imparted to the students without obstructions, such as strikes, boycotts etc. ?
7. Whether there is regularity, timeliness and smoothness, in the conduct of examinations and declaration of results ?
8. Whether examinations are conducted without malpractices, questions are upto the acceptable standard, valuation is not vitiated by subjective factors and the percentage of marks granted carry credibility ?
9. Whether the Students' Union/ other student organisations disrupt the normal functioning of the institution ?
10. Whether the community life in these institutions is conducive to the attainment of the laudable objectives of higher education ?
11. How far the institution is known in the world, or in the nation for the scholarship of its alumini or teachers ?
12. How far an institution has helped create innovative ideas in public relations, administration and other aspects of social life?
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U.G.C. Regulations: 1. Whether 10+2+3 system of education is being followed?
2. Whether admission at the undergraduate level is restricted on the basis of facilities available ?
3. Whether admission to Master's degree is given to those who have passed Three years Degree course after 12 years schooling ?
4. Whether appropriate mechanism has been adopted to ensure 180 teaching days in a year leaving aside Sundays, Holidays/ and period spent for completing admissions, examinations etc. ?
5. Whether the total period provided for teaching work is not less than 40 Clock hours in a week ?
6. Whether the institution works for 6 days in a week ?
7. Whether the syllabi for each course is well defined and divided into units / subunits with weightage given to each unit ?
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