Student Projects: Are We Killing it?

 Student Projects made its entry to colleges with the implementation of Choice Based Credit and Semester Scheme (CBCS). As a mandatory component of the coursework in  the fifth semester for the Undergraduate  and fourth semester in the postgraduate programmes, it was brought in. In the midst of paradigm shift that the CBCS curriculum heralded, doing away with the year schemes and introduction of semester, the student project work was another novel element. It has stayed on though it's mandatory character has been revised of late. Now an Undergraduate student doesn't have to compulsorily do a project but can opt for a course in its place. Without denying the benefits the introduction of research projects may have brought to a wafer thin section of the students community, this post attempts to point out how this move could have been a system changer in Higher Education and what helped kill another well-intended move by the curriculum setters through systemic academic apathy. 

The introduction of Student Projects brought in challenges of mixed nature in to the Higher Education system. Some of the challenges were related to the student competence while some were teacher attitude and skill related. It is important for us to identify and  analyse the issues related because the existing scenario in relation to the student projects at the UG and PG level is caused by a mixture of student incompetence and teacher unwillingness coupled. On the  one hand teaching-learning practices the students are familiar with and the teachers were comfortable with were always not the ones that prepare the ground for the development of competencies required for generating research practices and skills. Yet often, without considering the situation in  its entirety, it is made to look as one in which the student lack of interest and  skill  were the only reasons for killing the idea of the student project. Now the UG or PG project has been domesticated by a good share of departments in HEIs so that it has become the right fit of the 'everywhere performed' version.  

The skill sets and competencies called for in the production of a project are many. A research project is not merely a writing activity. From the conception of a hypothesis till the final submission of the project, passing through literature review, framing the thesis question, collecting data,  analysing the data, reading, writing, chapterisation,  conclusion, listing refered works - there are multiple steps involved which are interrelated. When you look at a UG student research project from the beginning to the end, the skill sets expected of the undergraduate by the time he finishes first four semesters are many. Hence the first question is, are all the students who arrive at the undergraduate scene after 10 + 2 schooling competent to take up such a project work? Have they been groomed so? If not, within the four semesters that the undergraduates are with us or the three semesters the postgraduate students are with us, have we made them capable of developing those skill sets and attitudes? Rather than spending too much time analysing what the undergrads didn't learn till they reached us, can't we focus on how we do that during the initial four semesters of the Degree and PG program?  If not, we tha faculty members will have to reach the rather intriguing conclusion that the undergraduate students would automatically be capable of producing a well researched project work the moment they move to the Semester concerned- fifth for UG and third for PG. 

Ignoring what has happened or what has not happened to the students prior to the graduate program, isn't it possible within the early semesters to take efforts to develop part of the skills and practices necessary for a student to have the minimal capability to take up the UG project? Do we make it compulsory that our students  submit full seminar papers in written form in the right format following, for instance, the latest MLA guidelines? Do we teachers insist that the submitted papers follow the right pattern? Is it compulsory in our departments to stick to a strict timeline for the submission of seminar papers and  assignments? Do we go through all the submitted papers and offer comments and advises? Do we run a simple plagiarism check through google? Do we ask them to start off with a research question? Do we have a system in place in the departments, SOPs, to follow from the beginning to the end for seminar paper and assignment writing process?  These questions are raised because  seminar papers / classroom presentations/ assignments done during the semesters leading upto the project-semester can be the training ground to develop at least part of the competencies necessary for project writing at that level. The best practices which are put in place viz a viz class seminar presentations and assignment submissions play every significant role in shaping their attitude and making them aware of the seriousness of the research process at an introductory level. Without this happening, without helping the students internalise the protocols and procedures  involved in research process including report writing, the students cannot be expected to be abruptly aware about and capable of the basics of doing a project at that level. 

The current story of student projects in colleges is not very wholesome. With the problems I have mentioned earlier, it is easy to point the finger at the students, citing their lack of interest and incapability of doing a project. But isn't it equally just to argue that many of the faculty members are not really applying the required degree of pressure and not taking it with deserving levels of ownership and integrity? The fact that huge share of the student projects submitted these days to the departments,  carrying the signature of the faculty supervisor concerned, declaring it to be at bonafide work, are crude reproductions of material borrowed from different web based sources, is a shame. When we announced Project Prizes for best undergraduate projects in different subjects in the current academic year, the numbers we received were surprisingly small. In a university which has more than 400 affiliated colleges and when almost all those colleges offer multiple programs in the Commerce stream, the number of projects received for the top project prize were around 50. The reasons why majority of students / colleges were not sending their projects for consideration is simple. Many of the faculty members mentioned that either the projects were of poor quality or they admitted that the students have massively lifted materials from the web. Hence the teachers were not confident of nominating their students' projects. It would not be fair to place the responsibility for such a state of affairs squarely on the shoulders of the student community. Whatever is said, it cannot be denied that all colleges carry a bunch of students quite capable and excellent in what way they do.  Why are the so called programs which the departments and colleges have apparently organised for the benefit of the advanced learners not evident in the form of good student projects, I wonder. 

What becomes immediately evident when we assess the quality of student projects is the lack of seriousness with which it is done. This is evident not only in the quality of the projects but in the quality of the supervision too. When the supervisor of a project signs the bonafide certificate,  without checking the authenticity of the work recorded in the following pages, it is a reflection of the lack of quality in supervision. When the short project was introduced, there certainly was a lack of awareness and skill on the part of the teacher community and the university authorities of the time failed in providing the right kind of professional support to faculty members. But since then the capabilities of the faculty members have tremendously increased over the years. What is lacking at the moment is the willingness to act. 

As I have often repeated, a  project can be a career passport. These days when the grade cards do not carry much value, an original project done with care and passion can impresses an interview board. That is not the only significant takeaway from a UG or PG project done well. Many of those students would pick the fundamental lessons of doing research like collecting data, compiling a report, reviewing literatures, framing research question, documenting references through a UG project. The intellectual rigours a researcher would face in the future is present in a minor form in a UG project. For some of our students, a well supervised student project could be a move in the right direction which would take them to considering research as a career option in the future. Obviously it would be an uphill task to make each student, whether they are interested, capable or not, bring out a quality project report. Such an effort doesn't bear fruit and nor does it make sense always. But each UG / PG research supervisor, each department in a college, is capable of producing a bunch of excellent projects. With serious interventions and putting a system in place regarding student projects,  this can be achieved. If the popularity of research as a career destination and quality of research at higher levels, including at the faculty level, needs to be improved, this is  where we need to nourish such practices.

Babu. P. K, PhD.