HiEd Log

While interviewing for new faculty positions, I came across a young faculty interviewee who has neither attended seminars, workshops or any professional development programmes nor done any publishing. That happens occasionally. More interestingly, the person hasn't been to any college other than where the UG and PG Programmes were done by her. On asked about the reasons, it was said that her college gives all importance to students and doesn't want students to suffer because of faculty absence. That sounded a very interesting way of ensuring student support to me! The institution seems to have completely skewed it's strategies in terms of faculty professional development with the  apparent belief that eternally tying the faculty down to the campus with their constant presence is the best way of putting the students first! This 'old school' approach neither ensures the student growth nor satisfies the need for teacher growth.  Home is where you keep returning to, rat...

We are at the threshold of a major overhaul of the Higher Education scene in India as the NEP unfolds and the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUGP) is being slowly unveiled. In Kerala, the FYUGP will be implemented from the academic year 2024-25 in all colleges and the decision making bodies are working overtime to put a system in place. There's an equal mixture of hope and anxiety in the air. Hope bred by the changes to be ushered in with the system reboot and the expectations thereof. Anxiety stemming from the manner in which the changes may be administered. No system can be overhauled overnight and huge challenges are on the cards when a National Policy shift with seismic proportions in the Higher Education scene is put into action. This post means to indicate the multiple ways in which the whole exercise can go haywire if the past instances are anything to go by. It also dwells on the precautions which can be taken while the State goes about implementing the same.  The past...

What will happen to the work we have done as NAAC is revising it's guidelines? This is a standard question from many quarters each time the assessment norms for accreditation are revised. Though the worry is understandable and valid to an extent, it raises concerns of another kind regarding the relationship between accreditation parameters, the institutional readiness and their relevance. The outcome of each such revision, in any system, may be warranted by many causes. It may be a periodic revision which all systems need to undergo time to time. It may also be the outcome of a revision warranted by the systemic changes. The revision may also be the result of corrective measures necessitated by the need to weed out complacency or corruption. As always, all changes may not be exclusively changes for the better!  There has always been the question of what is it that an HEI leader has to do when charged with the responsibility of preparing it for periodic assessments. Ready the insti...

It is quite important to have someone to ask you if you have done what you said you will do, a colleague told me years back while I was leading another college. It is well-known that follow-up is a key tool of an effective leader even though the intensity and frequency might vary from leader to leader. When it comes to administering an Institute of Higher Learning, it is relevant to pay stress on the follow-up element as office, faculty members, dept leadership and coordination at various levels need to be put through a reality check to see how the implementation status fares against the decisions taken.  Follow-up as a strategy yields excellent results. The discussions and decisions of the various meetings, the directions of the guiding bodies and policy directives and government instructions, keep the plates of the leadership of the institution always full. But a huge part of the full plate will comprise of the decisions taken and policy implementation in progress. The journey of...

Policy shifts are necessary and expected. Those shifts may indicate the future pathways a system, an institution, has to undertake to evolve according to the vision set or to sync with the larger unfolding scene around. Such policy shifts are challenging  not just for those who draft it. It is more challenging to those who implement it: the advisory bodies, overseeing Universities and the faculty and faculty leadership. The one category I haven't mentioned above is the institutional leadership who are chosen to play the pivot when such a massive transformation is navigated.  India is shifting gears in its efforts to implement the New Education Policy and the confusion and frustration are visible at different levels. Talking change and making change are entirely different ballgames with the former being easy and latter, hard. The role of leadership in times of transformation is key to ensuring that the envisaged change is communicated in as cogent terms as possible, is made pra...

 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...