Best Practices II
Title of the Practice:
Promotion of research activities among the teaching faculty
Objective of the Practice:
It was thought that the college cannot find itself left behind in research activities. As an institution of higher learning in the 21st century, it was quite obvious that research has to be a thrust area. The objective, therefore, was to shore up our research output. That is, our locational disadvantage, situated as we are in a poor corner of Purba Medinipur, should not deter us from setting ambitious research targets.
The Context:
As appointments in colleges in West Bengal take place through a centralized West Bengal College Service Commission, the talent that colleges in West Bengal draw upon is more or less comparable academically. That being so, it was thought that why will our college not be able to come up with research activities comparable to the more renowned colleges, the quality of the faculty being more or less same. We knew we are behind in infrastructural facilities along with the fact that we did not have any worthwhile research culture as such in the college in comparison to the older colleges and those located in urban centres but we felt that our sheer zeal and energy should more than compensate these failings of ours. And what went in our favour is that we have presently a very young faculty, for example 50 percent of our faculty has been recruited in the last five years and are hence less than 40 years of age. And also with the arrival of stringent CAS norms, publication or research activity has become a sort of given to progress in one’s professional academic career. Teachers will, therefore, pursue research for their own personal benefit.
The Practice:
The college took upon itself the responsibility to encourage the teachers, both young and experienced, to pursue research interests. So for pursuing their research the college provides them research ambience, necessary library, laboratory facilities etc. Teachers are also encouraged to participate in different national and international seminars, conferences and to apply for different research projects, both major and minor from different funding agencies, to publish articles in reputed national/international journals and arrange seminars and conferences, to make associations with research communities thereby widening the scope of their research work and collaboration. The IQAC of the college has fixed publication targets for the faculty to achieve in the next three years. Both in publications in UGC CARE listed journals and also publications in edited volumes/books/conference proceedings (National and International) the IQAC has set targets for the faculty to achieve. This setting of targets is surely very ambitious in nature but the college IQAC feels that along with the need to garner API points for CAS promotion, this target setting will spur the teachers into serious research activity.
The following are the major practices related to the promotion of research activities in the college:
- Regular meeting of the Research Cell to monitor the research activities done by college faculty.
- Encouraging the teachers to apply for different research projects, both Major and Minor from reputed national funding agencies like UGC, DBT, DSTSERB etc. through the college Research Cell and in collaboration with university and nearby research institutes.
- Encouraging the faculty members to publish their research articles in journals of national and international repute (UGC CARE listed) and books from reputed publication houses.
- Upgrading the laboratories and libraries.
- Encouraging the teachers to attend different seminars / workshops / Refresher Courses to enrich their knowledge.
- Organizing seminars and workshops relating to modern trends of multidisciplinary research.
- Reimbursing the registration fees of teachers attending and presenting papers in national/international seminars (Maximum amount Rs. 500/- per year).
Evidence of Success :
We are in the early stages of this promotional process and the process till now has not yielded tangible results. We are, however, hopeful that in a few years we will have results to show for our efforts. Research, surely, as we all know is not an overnight activity and it takes time for the results to arrive. But there are early indications of success, for example, at present among 33 full time faculties there are 22 PhDs. Though some of them may have entered college with PhD, yet in the last seven years, ten of the serving full time faculties have been awarded the doctorate degree. However, as far as research publications are concerned, we are still to pick up pace. For example, total number of research articles published in UGC CARE listed journals during 2019-20 stands at 2. Other than this, there are 3 prestigious publications in national and international journals and 2 in edited volumes in the last one year. As far as paper-presentations in seminars are concerned, there are 9 paper-presentations in national and international seminars in the same period. The total combined output surely is not much to write about but we are confident that the steps we have taken will ensure a far better yield in the coming years.
Problems Encountered and Resources Required:
With research the main roadblock was the lack of research infrastructure, the college not having well developed laboratory facilities that could support advanced research. Moreover, an occasional problem was the attitude among some who are still to adjust themselves to the changed times where publish or perish has become a kind of byword in academic circles. The IQAC stepped in here and we are confident that we will be able to oversee attitudinal change among those still sceptical, and make everyone in the college believe in the importance of advanced research and not get deterred by our myriad shortcomings.