HiEd Log

 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...

 A student union Chair once met me seeking permission to celebrate Halloween. Of course he didn't know what exactly it is all about, but he knew that certain colleges are celebrating it. He wasn't sure how the celebration will look like but he knew it involves frightening and wearing masks. Event-driven student experiences have become a common feature of the college campuses in Kerala today. College working days are now packed with events and activities in varied forms and manifestations. From world cup fan shows to Halloween, it is growing. As the possibilities expand, there soon will be one reason or another to run an event or to organize an activity with validity variously established. When the multiplicity of such events threaten to slowly edge the formal curriculum out, introspection becomes need of the hour. As a person who champions an action/activity driven learning environment, it is both taxing and rewarding to comment critically on the rise of celebration-centred cam...

 Faculty blogs serve a number of purposes.  The following is an attempt to argue why and how blogs can help the faculty members of HEIs improve their professional stature and teacher profile in various ways. 1. Writing is a key communicative and professional skill. It is very common to come across faculty members who struggle to communicate with clarity, conviction and correctness whether it be in English or in mother tongue. Whatever be the causes which led to this state of affairs, a blog - personal or an institutional one - can help improve this skill. If a couple of hours can be set apart each week for this purpose, it will lead not only to improving the writing skill, but it will also help the teacher leave behind a body of writing which could be cured into more serious works later. A couple of dedicated hours for the blog can be periods of self training too. Starting small with incremental writing can help one slowly master the fundamentals, eliminate the syntactic error...

Inaugural ceremonies are (un)avoidable often. Is it because, if an event, even while it is in-house, if it is not inaugurated, it can not be deemed to have begun? If it is a necessity, why are the institutions hell bent on making it as long and as boring as possible? Why are the office bearers of the committees which run the colleges, who double as guests / chief guests for in-house events, take it unprofessionally and make it fail in meeting the objective? Since this is a regular feature of the events in many institutions, not just HEIs, I thought I will scribble why we need to do away with the inaugural ceremonies so that it doesnt prey into and work against what is being inaugurated.  1. Inaugural ceremonies of in-house programmes are invariably delayed, often thanks to the chief guest, guest or a local office bearer of the college committee. It could also be administrator, director, coordinator, academic advisor as they come in multiple guises! This forces the programme to run ...

  Degree takers in colleges are falling in numbers. The trend is not just limited to one region or university. In a way this is a trend which can overhaul the way HEIs are run and the fare the HEIs offer. It can even, in the very long run, destabilise the whole segment and render many who are part of the HEIs jobless. The time taken to complete a major degree and the content offered as part of the graduation in Higher Education Institutions like colleges are apparently not a good fit for many in the new generation. The decline in the number of degree takers that is slow and steady may not be felt by the frontline colleges right now. Many of the top colleges, top in terms of quality and in the case of some, top rated in  popularity and on a slow, yet indistinct downward spiral, this declining demand may not be evident at the moment. In University of Calicut the drop in undergraduate admission registration amounts to thirty thousand plus in the year 2022, which is up from what i...

  There are certain schools which do not permit birthday celebrations of the traditional kinds. The chocolates, cakes and the like are not let in in to the schools. This is because the kids and the parents get caught in the cake race and it puts pressure on them. To out-cake and out-toffee one another, the number and nature of the sweets distributed rise and many get caught in the competitive frenzy. Hence these schools accept books to the library or have the birthday girl /boy plant a sapling. An awareness about the anniversary of the day on which one is born can be put to many uses. A book or a tree obviously is better, for me, than joining the toffee-race.  The analogy occurred to me thinking of the growing spectacle of NAAC Peer Team reception these days in certain colleges. The spectacle is growing and is getting more and more spectacular, college after college, Peer Team visit after visit.  This is because certain HEIs in Kerala seem to have made up their mi...

  There are huge campuses in all countries where reputation never sleeps. The moment you drop the name of the campus, lips round for an appreciative 'oh' or spread for an admiring 'ah'! These master campuses have decades of reputation in academics and student achievements. These campuses have the spread, feel and presence with an X factor which often only those who were/are inside will be more able to feel and not always able to explain. At more visible levels, it is more about buildings, lab equipment, shady, cobbled pathways or the amphitheater. These colleges have their reputation built up student by batch over the years. Though the mammoth totality which we call campus is represented as singular, the teaching departments (depts), Cells, Clubs and similar bodies evenly/unevenly would have contributed to the status to which it has risen over decades. Still there are certain depts in these colleges which stand out head and shoulders above the rest with the sheer ...