Making of ACAS 6: Annual Project Prize

Ever since a minor research project was included in the curriculum of undergraduate programs offered by the HEIs, the mandatory student project (the mandatoriness was relaxed later to make it a student choice, I understand) which forms part of the final semester has been a matter of more concern and less praise. Like many moves to bring in added skills and capabilities to the learner and faculty members have been tamed to fit the work ethics of the supervising faculty, the project idea too has been reduced to a printed long essay with embellishments of hard cover and acknowledgements, thinly spread across so many pages. Since a good student project at the undergraduate level can truly enrich the possibilities of better higher studies and careers, we decided to launch the UG Project Prize at ACAS. This was actually modelled on the Dissertation Award which I introduced at Unity Women's College a decade back for the best Postgraduate Dissertations in English at the state level, which was later turned to a National level award.

Since there is a bigger need to orient the young learners to the rigours of academic writing early on, I felt the introduction of a prize will help bring in more attention and raise the quality bar among the HEIs. 

The Beginnings 

The need to improve the quality of research writing is something I have always been conscious of. Workshops and master sessions have been delivered at multiple levels, often teaming up with Dr. Kunhammad, Professor and Dean at Kannur University. The project quality improvement efforts at ACAS, hence, is a continuation of the previous efforts at Unity College and MES Mampad College where I have led such campaigns. The first step forward was actually the establishment of a Project Quality Cell (PQC) at ACAS. The objective was to ensure that there is a plan spread across six semesters to initiate, follow up and help deliver quality projects by the students. This was an in-house body which will meet all semesters, certain semesters multiple times, to assess the progress and to trouble-shoot and follow up. There was a faculty member to coordinate as the committee was made up of dept level coordinators. 

The Plan 

The composition of the committee to oversee the project quality improvement was mentioned because it was from there that we decided to spread the same efforts to other colleges too. The idea was mooted in the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) and the  Coordinator Mr. Rohith Ravi was keen to go ahead with it. The Heads of the Departments too backed up the idea and it was approved as one of the quality important initiatives of the academic year 2021-22. From there onward, the coordinator of Project Prize and the IQAC provided the fuel for the mission to move on. Through a series of meetings of the Project Prize Committee, decisions were taken regarding the subjects in which project prizes will be offered, the call for entries, parameters of short listing and the procedure for the final Open Defence of the  shortlisted projects,  design of posters and brochures, content for website, external experts for the Open Defence, the Prize money and the time line. 

The Implementation 

As always, once the plan is on the table, the implementation part raises the real challenges. From the release of the first brochure to the handing over of the Project Prizes to the most worthy ones, it is one long road. But under the able leadership of Ms. Renjitha. K. R, Asst. Professor of English, the Project Prize has been well taken care of. The responsibility of networking with other institutions have been on the shoulders of the Dept level coordinators and they consistently delivered good results. The process which commences at the beginning of January each year with the first Call for Projects, ends in June/July with final award of plaques and Cash Prizes after the Open Defence of the Shortlisted Projects.

The Challenges

To make the institution buy the plan you make is a challenge whenever something really novel is suggested. Often there will be a layer of scepticism in the air, all the more as we are a new institution with very young faculty members whose reach, access and network is only beginning to grow. I am referring to the initial bewilderment which is always there. Once the dust of bewilderment and then acceptance settles down, the real nature of difficulties are visualised, as they zero in on the minor components which make up the idea. 

The University of Calicut itself has more than 400 colleges affiliated to it, with all colleges offering many programmes. But it was difficult to get entries from more than 40 colleges in three subjects in which the Prize was initially offered. It was a University level Competition then. In the following year, even though the Project Prizes were offered at the State Level, there was reluctance among colleges to send their best student projects for the competition.  For instance, even if we consider Commerce, which has more number of programmes than any other subject, the number of entries has never gone above  50. In the second edition, we had 150 entries in all four subjects - English, Commerce, Economics and Psychology - put together. This was the leading obstacle: the inability to draw more nominations from the colleges. The colleges either stated their helplessness in making the students ready to apply or they were not sure whether to submit their wards' works  on account of plagiarism fears. 

Another challenge was raising the quality and confidence levels of our faculty members to make them competent to do the primary assessment of the entries received, in the process of shortlisting the nominations. A real awareness of what constitutes a good UG Project is mandatory here. Without mastering the fundamentals of research processes and research writing, it will not be possible to assess them fairly. Apart from constant discussions, meeting and slow mentoring, the Research forums at Department level, Undergraduate Research Centre activities, work and exposure related to the Publication Wing, all these helped shape up the faculty members for the responsibility. Finding the External Experts for the final Open Defence at times posed challenges but the Dept leadership was able to handle it. 

The Takeaways 

In one sense, a large number of HEIs around us, rather than us, too have reaped the benefits of the introduction of the Project Prizes. This perfectly syncs with the rationale for the introduction of the Project Prize. Many colleges have begun to focus on quality projects as it can also bring them laurels like the Project Prizes offered by us. We were beginning to get enquiries regarding the call for nominations too. I would consider this as the biggest takeaway from the whole exercise. The advantages back home have been several. Faculty exposure to the kind of projects done in various colleges across the state, their experience of assessing projects and the professional growth it leads to, their opportunity to connect and expand the professional network, institutional visibility, opportunity to prepare our own students for the same and the opportunity it provided to, especially, the advanced learners of the college to watch and learn from better performers in the Open Defence: all these mattered. Equally relevant is the fact that many students were able to convert part of their shortlisted projects to publication in our own ISSN journal 'afterwords' and in the book, 'Interdisciplinary Insights' we brought out. Though not many undergraduate students are able to walk out of their colleges with a publication, some of our students are. Even the Undergraduate Research Centre at ACAS was a lateral outcome of thoughts which sprang up during the Project Prize discussions. 

The Way Forward 

We have run two editions of the Undergraduate Project prize, starting from 2022, each year the number of responses we have received did increase. As (and, if!) the College moves on with the Project Prize, it sure has to double the efforts to bring in more nominations from colleges around. Even though to a great extent, this lies beyond the control of the college, it can play a lead role in making inroads to the quality institutions around, connecting with them and inspiring them to send us their best. As the ultimate objective is to raise quality, the college can put in place a system to support those prize-winning students as they move on to their higher studies and careers. As I always say, a good project is a career passport. Good project guidance can open better career pathways for faculty supervisors too. In the NEP-FYUGP era, there is a lot good undergraduate student projects can open up to and HEIs should be able to exploit it. 

Babu. P. K., Ph D.