University teachers will be assessed, graded on their performance or promotions and career advancements

From now on, teachers will be graded and  assessed annually on their performance and become eligible for promotions  and career advancements based on their teaching performance, research work  and publication quality.

 
With the University Grants Commission  (UGC) today notifying its “Regulations on Minimum Qualifications for  Appointment of Teachers and other Academic Staff in Universities and
Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher  Education, performance of teachers will be assessed on the basis of a  Performance Based Assessment System (PBAS) in which scores have been  assigned to each sub-dimension or Academic Performance Indicator (API).

As per APIs identified by the UGC and  approved by the (HRD) Ministry, 75 per cent weightage will be given to  “teaching, learning & evaluation” activities which will include  lectures, practicals and tutorials taken, teaching duties in excess of  UGC norms, use of innovative teaching tools and examination duties.

Fifteen per cent weightage will be  accorded to “co-curricular, extension and professional development  related activities” of a teacher which will comprise student-related,
field based activities like NSS/NCC, contribution to management of  department, participation in seminars, conferences, short-term  training courses and talks.

Further, selection committees will have the option of observing candidates in actual classroom situations or  through research presentations.

That apart, API scores are proposed for  “research and academic contribution” of a teacher. While research  papers, published in refereed journals, will fetch a teacher 15 points  per publication, it will be 10 points in case of a non-refereed journal.

Research publications like  books, chapters in books and so on will also earn a teacher scores — for  example, 50 points for a sole-author publication, 10 points for a chapter in
an edited book, 25 points for sole-author subject books by national-level  publishers or Central, state government publications.


For sponsored research projects ranging from  Rs 5 lakh to Rs 30 lakh across various disciplines, 20 points will be earned  by the teachers concerned for each project. Minor projects will earn  teachers 10-15 points while consultancy projects will also fetch some 10
points.

Relying heavily on self-assessment by  teachers, these API scores will be derived from objectively verifiable  criteria that will be drawn up by a screening/selection committee. UGC will soon be sending a PBAS proforma to all varsities which will also be free to  devise their own PBAS based on it.

Teachers will be able to offer themselves for  assessment for promotion once they fulfill minimum API scores — they will  also be able to get increments to the tune of 3 per cent of the Academic  Grade Pay (AGP) — as outlined under the Sixth Pay Commission.


State governments have also been asked to  amend their relevant Acts within six months to enable implementation of  these regulations.


Under the regulations, universities and  colleges will  set up Internal Quality Assessment Cells within three months and these will  keep the annual database for individual and institutional performance. The  assessment systems will become tougher as teachers move up from Associate Professor level to higher  levels but research requirements will be kept lower for college teachers  than varsity teachers, keeping in mind variations in available
infrastructure.


The regulations ask colleges to assign  research time to college teachers and provide necessary infrastructure. Also  outlined are eligibility conditions for teachers at various levels from  Assistant Professor-level to Principal-level, APIs for each category and the
flexibility to appoint reputed academics even if they may have superannuated  or may be outside the UGC system.

The G K Chadha-headed committee on pay  revision for teachers had recommended teacher assessment, including a  provision for evaluation of a teacher by students. This has been dropped in  the final UGC regulations in favour of self-assessment alone, in keeping  with demands of the teachers.