Faculty Recruitment: Alignment between
Individual Merit and Institutional Excellence
The Minister of HRD has
announced setting up IITs in every state. There has been a volley of protests
from many IITians about the need to set up new institutes when the older ones
have problems finding good faculty to teach and research. This is not an
isolated problem with IITs. All major Central universities and colleges
affiliated to them are also in a quandary as to how to fill up the vacancies
that exist. The present minister, Smriti Irani is on the same line with the
earlier Minister Kapil Sibal in finding quick-fix solutions to higher education
issues by promising to open more and more institutes as though the increase in
the number of Institutes alone will help India qualify as a knowledge hub.
In fact the main issue
before our higher education institutions is one of reconciling the two
imponderables- quality with quantity. In their eagerness to please the public,
all politicians take recourse to expansion by starting new institutes and
universities to accommodate all students aspiring for admission. Institutions
are built and not opened like shops for the public to enter and buy from the
variety of goods stacked in the shelves. Even if the shop is attractively
designed and stocked with all the latest products available but has poor
salespersons, the shop loses its attraction for the customers. This is equally
true of all educational institutions- from schools to colleges to universities
and other degree awarding institutes such as the Institutes of Technology and
Management. The setting up of new educational institutions is like opening
shops with plush interiors, stacking the syllabus shelf with course designs
culled from universities in the West, constructing state-of the -art
laboratories but without proper faculty to teach. The existing colleges in the
University of Delhi alone have a backlog of vacancies to be filled up. The
process involved is cumbersome and colleges short circuit it by making
haphazard ad -hoc appointments that can last only for three months. The short
tenure of the ad-hoc teachers affects the quality of instruction and ad- hoc
appointees cannot be held accountable for the poor performance of the students.
Colleges are wary of
the selection process that has to go through many stages before the interviews
take place. The colleges have to seek the permission of the University Grants
Commission (as it holds the purse strings of the colleges) to fill vacancies as
and when they arise. The UGC will ask one of its junior assistants to do a
mathematical calculation as per the teacher-student ratio of 1:12 (for Hons
course) and 1;15 (for pass courses) and
accordingly grant or withhold its approval. There are language courses
like Sanskrit, Bengali, Tamil and other regional languages besides courses in Philosophy,
Mathematics, Geography etc where the intake of students will be less though the
number of papers to be studied in these courses is the same as for other
honours courses. The mathematical calculation in the case of such departments
will be naturally skewed as the ratio of teacher to students will be low making
it impossible to get a faculty of full strength to teach all the papers spread
over three years. For example if there is a strength of ten students in a
language honours course, as per the present teacher-student ratio, only one
teacher can be appointed , raising the question how that single teacher can
handle all the prescribed papers . This process of quantification and
ratiocination through arithmetical calculation is thus deeply flawed as it
fails to factor in the number of papers to be taught.
The selection committee
is constituted by the University comprising two university experts, the
Chairperson of the Management Committee, the teacher-in- charge of the
department and the principal of the college. On paper, this sounds reasonable
and just, but the Chairperson who invariably belongs to the party in power
gives his nod to the person recommended by the party higher-ups. In most of the
selections, merit becomes the casualty yielding its rightful position to party
sponsored nepotism. Since the Chairperson’s approval is needed (and inter alia,
the patronage of the political party), the selection committee often kowtows to
him/her. The constitution of the
selection committee needs a re-look wherefore
it has no member other than subject experts of proven rectitude. The
advertisement to these posts should also be unambiguously clear, identifying
the area that is to be taught. For example a history position should state
whether it is for ancient history or medieval or modern, European or American
or Far-east so that the experts on the Selection Committee are specialists in
that area. A position in Botany should specify if it is for Bio- technology or
Genomics or Molecular Biology etc. Vague generalization will make it easy for
manipulation and devious management of the selection process. Similarly the
professors always try to appoint students working under them. The common line
of argument is if the difference among the top candidates is minimal, it is
better to select one among them who is personally known to the professors who
can vouch for their calibre. Again this has led to academic favouritism and
partisanship in the selection and appointment of teachers. It is important for the
applicant to state the names of the Professors s/he has worked under so that they
do not become a part of the selection committee. It will be prudent to have a
list of experts outside of the university/college that has advertised for the
academic positions.
The third problem
arises out of reservation posts. For
instance, the posts falling against the 7th, 15th, and 20th points in the
roster are reserved for the Scheduled Castes; the posts falling against the
4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th for the Other Backward Classes; posts falling against
14th, 28th and 40th for the Scheduled Tribes and so on until 200 points are
reached in the roster, by which time Scheduled Castes would have got 30 posts
(i.e. 15% of 200), Scheduled Tribes 15 posts (i.e. 7.5% for 200), and the Other
Backward Classes 54 posts (i.e. 27% of 200). Here comes an important question. Should
academic positions have reservations? While reservation is welcome at different
levels of administration, reservation in teaching fails to address two
issues-(1) the quality of a teacher is to be determined by merit and not by caste
because teaching demands a reasonable degree of mastery over the subject and
good communication skills. (2) Unlike administrative jobs where on the job
training can be given, academic positions are post-learning jobs. When a
soldier enters the battle field for the first time, we call it ‘baptism by
fire’. The soldier undergoes enormous training before he is inducted into the
battle field. Similarly a teacher has to have an in-depth understanding of
his/her subject before s/he is inducted into the classroom. There is no luxury of
on-the-job training for a teacher as is the case with the soldier. Handling young sensitive minds, initiating
them into the higher realms of knowledge, perking up their cognitive curiosity and
raising the bar of learning are core intellectual tasks that can be accomplished
only by those who have an aptitude for
learning and who have attained a reasonable degree of scholarship. Teaching is
not a practical job; it needs mental discipline and a love for intellectual
pursuits. All applicants including the reserved category have to go through
this grind before they are eligible to apply for a teaching position. If one
has a natural talent, aptitude and ability for intellectual and academic
pursuits, s/he joins the academic position. This is to be done only on merit.
It will be a pity to see anyone enter an academic career on quota and not by
merit that denies him the true worth of the knowledge he has acquired. What I
have written will not sound politically correct but if quality, dignity and
intellectual worth of the applicant are to be respected, merit alone warrants
attention.
These are basic steps
to be followed in the recruitment process. But the greater problem is the acute
shortage of high quality teachers with a zest for knowledge and continuous scholarship.
The Tamil proverb that you can ladle that which is in the pot is applicable to all
our higher educational institutions. The number of available candidates with
high research scholarship is far too small given the huge backlog of vacancies
to be filled. In order of preference, teaching profession occupies the lowest
for our young men and women who graduate with distinction. In the past, the IIT
ians formed the largest exodus in search of greener pastures in the West. We
now witness our best students leaving for US through SAT examination even
before graduation. They go for their first degree in Sciences or Humanities to
top US universities and do not return as the scope for research and academic
pursuits are far more satisfying there in terms of intellectual and monetary
gains. The American universities in particular encourage and reward merit
without discrimination. The other
options for our bright young graduates are to go for a Management degree from top
IIMs and become the highest paid corporate professionals where they have
seamless opportunities for advanced career graph. A few among them with
commitment and dedication opt for civil services where merit often finds itself
in a losing competition with extraneous pressure groups. Academics is the last
refuge of our bright young minds when all other options are closed to them.
Dispirited and depressed, they enter the academic profession that neither fetches
them a handsome pay packet nor a premier status in society. The very few who
persist with academics despite all its downsides and disadvantages establish
themselves as scholars of international repute. We have to be thankful that we
have such noteworthy academicians in our universities even if they constitute a
very small percentage of the available faculty. But we need a lot more of such
high quality scholars in our institutions to carry on indigenous research and generate
ideas that are germane to the development of our society. The question is where
can they be found and how can they be assured that our institutions of higher
learning are places where excellence is law.
This requires rebooting
the process of recruitment that is to be solely based on the highest academic
credentials of the candidate. To attract the best minds, our institutions
should spread its net wide across the world and not limit it to what is
available within the country. We must have the humility to acknowledge that the
academic rigour in the developed countries is far more potent than anything
that we have in India. While not denying the advantages the universities in the
West have in terms of infrastructure, state-of-the art laboratories, libraries,
and academic ambience in general, the significant aspect to be noted is the
encouragement given to brilliant scholars to pursue research in terms of
funding and facilities they require. Laboratories and libraries are open till
late hours at night and give freedom to scholars to work without disturbance.
On- campus accommodation is a great help giving them easy access to the labs
and libraries from their residences. Unless this academic rigour is injected
into our universities, getting the best minds to return and retaining the best
minds in the country (without their making a beeline to the West) will remain a
distant dream.
It may be difficult to match a
professor’s emoluments in the West with what our institutions can offer. It may
be prudent to get some of the best Indian faculty from abroad to teach a year
or two on enhanced pay packet and seek their assistance to set up laboratories
and Study Centres to train our young men and women in advanced research in our
universities. There is nothing infra dig if we invite the best minds- both
Indian and international- to reinvigorate our universities and provide renewed
impetus to academic regeneration.
Instead of spending money on new IITs and new universities, the existing
institutions can be funded to develop them to be compatible with any university
or centre of excellence in any part of the world. In this way the academic
ambience can be nurtured and universities can gain international exposure. The
faculty recruitment will attract the best minds if the pay packet is almost on
par with what an IIM graduate is offered at the start of his career.
Recruitment for university position has to focus only on academic merit and on
parameters that reflect the applicant’s aptitude for sustained research and
learning. Universities should look for scholars with “cluster initiative,”
which encourages scholarly and academic collaboration across disciplines and
also addresses the problem of critical mass within a particular candidate’s
field of interest.
Universities that are the highest
altar of learning cannot accommodate puerile democratization and be open to the
entry of one and all. Universities are to be distinguished from all other
institutions and be allowed to restrict entry to those who devote themselves to
the pursuit and spread of organized knowledge. Throughout human history, the
evolution of life and civilization has depended on the generation of new ideas,
thoughts and philosophy. University
education encourages innovative research and new knowledge to meet the
challenges of an evolving world which never rests content on fossilized
theories and concepts. Universities are thus meant to be the preserves for
higher human alternatives. Excellence of the kind
that we associate with Universities is different. It is intellectual and
philosophical as it is humane learning. Developing cultivated minds that can harmonize and synthesise different
thoughts and ideas and promoting civilized citizenship constitute excellence in
university education. It will be incorrect to equate excellence in professional
institutions with excellence in university education. We need both. They do not
conflict with each other; rather they enrich and enhance learning and
contribute to a qualitative change in all our existential dimensions. True
excellence aggregates around the most urgent questions we face as humans. In
this essential pursuit of excellence, universities may have to seek new rules
and regulations for faculty recruitment that may on the surface conflict with
social equity and incur the odium of
elitism, but in the long run such elitism if understood in its true spirit will
permit scholars and intellectuals to possess and cultivate superior talent to
benefit the most disadvantaged sections of the society.
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