Most university faculty allocate three types of duties to individuals – namely, teaching courses, conducting research, and performing administrative duties. Ideally, there should be some flexibility in how the professor wants to use his or her time between the three tasks, but the reality is somewhat different. Many academics complain about working long hours, not because they are engaged in quality research, but the fact that they are stuck in many administrative tasks and other activities.
worldly work
From marking attendance in various formats, duplication of work requiring submission of both hard and soft copies, and course files and entire documents for student performance, the list of ‘clerical jobs’ is endless. Weekends are spent trying to capture the backlog that makes it impossible to focus on any meaningful research. With few or no research publications in reputed journals, the package and promotion of the faculty goes for a toss.
impediment to progress
A senior professor at a technical institute, speaking on condition of anonymity, says academics often get caught up in routine administrative processes, which makes research feel like a burden. “The rules have become stricter over the years, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to spend the government’s money. For example, the government is insisting on maintaining separate accounts for each project leading to increased bureaucracy in institutions. As per the new norms, all projects will be routed through a single treasury account in the bank, further complicating the process. Since the import of expensive equipment into India has been restricted, researchers – and this includes academics – will have to repeatedly seek approval from the ministry to gain access to them. So these days procuring research equipment is almost a one-year process.” A faculty would have to spend a major part of their time navigating these processes.
multiple roles
Talking further about the faculty pressure, Ravi Ranjan, Professor, Department of Political Science, Zakir Hussain Delhi College, Delhi University (DU), says, “In government institutions, though there is substantial workload, the faculty members teach accordingly”. UGC Criteria where teaching hours are time bound. This gives them ample time for research, although with the implementation of FYUP, the administrative load may increase in the near future. Private institutions, on the other hand, often cannot comply with the UGC norms, which calls for the formation of a high-powered committee to prevent exploitation of teachers and employ them beyond the stipulated time. Throughout the year, the faculty is surrounded by responsibilities which may include admission fee, counselling, fee collection, result publication, cultural events, leaving them little time to prepare for their classes. Faculty is not given proper research facility on campus and even the teacher-taught ratio is skewed.
Ravi Ranjan points to the fact that due to the synchronization between University Department and College Department At DU, the faculty is upgraded with new knowledge; They also have time to visit libraries and laboratories, which is often not the case with many private entities, he says.
academics like Saikat MajumdarProfessor of English and creative writingAshoka University, however, is among the lucky few who do not have to go through trials and tribulations. Long accustomed to the Stanford model of education, Saikat explains, “Our main objective is to publish, research and write more books. We are primarily seen as writers, scientists or intellectuals; Teaching is like any other job. We have to teach for six hours in a week, while five days can be used for research and publication. And even the PhD supervision we engage in has no fixed time. There is no externally imposed bureaucratic structure on us, as we have the freedom to shape things as we wish,” he added.
affiliated with academics
So long as the administrative functions of a Faculty, relating to academics, i.e., conduct of assessment and evaluation, student mentoring, student progress analysis, placements, etc., have been prescribed by the UGC, AICTEThis can lead to productive results, say Suja BennettDean-Academic, CMR University where there is a clear distribution of workload through TRCPIE Teaching (T), Research (R), Consultancy (C), Projects (P), Innovation (I) and Entrepreneurship (E). Faculty have the option to choose the components of the TRCPIE workload based on their domain, interests, experience and past achievements.
Emphasizing that the faculty come with varied experience and expertise, Suja says, “Institutions should reward/motivate the faculty for authentic research output besides facilitating faculty internship/consultancy which will give them industry exposure . Facilitating collaboration with national and international universities for faculty exchange programs can further improve their work culture.”
worldly work
From marking attendance in various formats, duplication of work requiring submission of both hard and soft copies, and course files and entire documents for student performance, the list of ‘clerical jobs’ is endless. Weekends are spent trying to capture the backlog that makes it impossible to focus on any meaningful research. With few or no research publications in reputed journals, the package and promotion of the faculty goes for a toss.
impediment to progress
A senior professor at a technical institute, speaking on condition of anonymity, says academics often get caught up in routine administrative processes, which makes research feel like a burden. “The rules have become stricter over the years, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to spend the government’s money. For example, the government is insisting on maintaining separate accounts for each project leading to increased bureaucracy in institutions. As per the new norms, all projects will be routed through a single treasury account in the bank, further complicating the process. Since the import of expensive equipment into India has been restricted, researchers – and this includes academics – will have to repeatedly seek approval from the ministry to gain access to them. So these days procuring research equipment is almost a one-year process.” A faculty would have to spend a major part of their time navigating these processes.
multiple roles
Talking further about the faculty pressure, Ravi Ranjan, Professor, Department of Political Science, Zakir Hussain Delhi College, Delhi University (DU), says, “In government institutions, though there is substantial workload, the faculty members teach accordingly”. UGC Criteria where teaching hours are time bound. This gives them ample time for research, although with the implementation of FYUP, the administrative load may increase in the near future. Private institutions, on the other hand, often cannot comply with the UGC norms, which calls for the formation of a high-powered committee to prevent exploitation of teachers and employ them beyond the stipulated time. Throughout the year, the faculty is surrounded by responsibilities which may include admission fee, counselling, fee collection, result publication, cultural events, leaving them little time to prepare for their classes. Faculty is not given proper research facility on campus and even the teacher-taught ratio is skewed.
Ravi Ranjan points to the fact that due to the synchronization between University Department and College Department At DU, the faculty is upgraded with new knowledge; They also have time to visit libraries and laboratories, which is often not the case with many private entities, he says.
academics like Saikat MajumdarProfessor of English and creative writingAshoka University, however, is among the lucky few who do not have to go through trials and tribulations. Long accustomed to the Stanford model of education, Saikat explains, “Our main objective is to publish, research and write more books. We are primarily seen as writers, scientists or intellectuals; Teaching is like any other job. We have to teach for six hours in a week, while five days can be used for research and publication. And even the PhD supervision we engage in has no fixed time. There is no externally imposed bureaucratic structure on us, as we have the freedom to shape things as we wish,” he added.
affiliated with academics
So long as the administrative functions of a Faculty, relating to academics, i.e., conduct of assessment and evaluation, student mentoring, student progress analysis, placements, etc., have been prescribed by the UGC, AICTEThis can lead to productive results, say Suja BennettDean-Academic, CMR University where there is a clear distribution of workload through TRCPIE Teaching (T), Research (R), Consultancy (C), Projects (P), Innovation (I) and Entrepreneurship (E). Faculty have the option to choose the components of the TRCPIE workload based on their domain, interests, experience and past achievements.
Emphasizing that the faculty come with varied experience and expertise, Suja says, “Institutions should reward/motivate the faculty for authentic research output besides facilitating faculty internship/consultancy which will give them industry exposure . Facilitating collaboration with national and international universities for faculty exchange programs can further improve their work culture.”