Revisiting and revitalizing the system of UGC_HRDC

After the establishment of ASCs (1986), the system of higher education has witnessed tremendous expansion and transformation. Various studies undertaken in our country and abroad have shown that any substantial increase in number of students, at university level makes impressive impact on economic growth in the decade that follows. During the XI Five Year Plan period there has been stress on expansion, equity and excellence.

Now there is greater concern and focus on the issues of quality and inclusive education. Several reforms are being introduced in higher education to ensure meaningful quality. This includes a National Mission on Teachers and Teaching to address important issues pertaining to availability of qualified teachers with systems to support their consistent knowledge up-gradation to match the global competition and other requirements of fast growing new knowledge in various disciplines and across disciplines.

The Mission also proposes to address the problem of attracting talent into teaching profession. It is also envisaged that the Mission would pursue long term goal of building a strong professional cadre of teachers by setting performance standards and creating top class institutional facilities for innovative teaching and professional development of teachers. The Mission would focus in a holistic manner dealing with the whole sector of education without fragmentation.

In line with the foregoing objectives and for achieving quality assured system for capacity building, continuous knowledge enhancement, new strategies of governance for promotion of innovations and creativity, in these guidelines are being proposed to transform the existing ASCs into two level systems in the form of a Scheme of setting up Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC) and Regional Centres for Capacity Building (RCCB) in selected universities in the country to create new such systems commensurate with the expansion of higher education institutions by the University Grants Commission (UGC) with following broad plan of action.

• To organize specially designed Orientation Programmes (OPs) in pedagogy, educational psychology and philosophy, and socio-economic and political concerns for all new entrants at the level of Assistant Professor;
• To organize advanced level and more discipline oriented Refresher Courses (RCs), for capacity enhancement and continuous knowledge up-gradation and exposure to emerging developments of faculty involved in teaching in institutions of higher education;
• To ensure that every teacher in higher education system of our country is exposed to an OP and a RC at least once during the first three to five years; of his/her career.
• To organize specially designed OPs/RCs to enable the faculty involved in teaching and research in institutions of higher education to utilize fast growing Information and Communication Technology support to teaching and research;

Target Groups

The following main target groups have been identified for capacity building, knowledge enhancement and similar other programmes with the objective of a holistic approach focused on transformation of our institutions of higher education to a more facilitating academic environment conducive to innovations, creativity and quality advanced learning and research.

• Faculty members in institutions of higher learning engaged in teaching and research
• Teacher Educators
• Key non academic functionaries in institutions of higher learning for better governance and to facilitate efficient use of various fast growing ICT resources and applications
• Research scholars

Main categories of human resource development and capacity building programmes

The HRDCs and RCCBs will mainly organize the following main category of human resource development and capacity building programmes

Orientation / First Level Programmes: Every new faculty member in higher education will be required to undergo a four week Orientation / First level Programme which will be focused on some broad area of knowledge spanning a few allied disciplines

The objective of the orientation programme is to make teachers an agent of socio-economic change and put them in centre stage of national development. The programme shall have the following components:

• 10% weight for topics in higher education such as issues of ethics, gender, marginalized communities, plagiarism etc.
• 10% weight for issues related to environment.
• 10% weight for issues concerning service matters of teachers.
• 20% for broad cross discipline topics to motivate the trainees for development of interdisciplinary understanding and interest including basic legal awareness.
• 10% weight for Research Methodology.
• 15% weight for Communication Skills and Information Technology.
• 10% weight for Microteaching.
• The remaining 15% of content of the First Level Programme will be focused on broad understanding of various subjects with recent global trends and developments.

Refresher / Second Level Programmes: These will be mainly focused for those faculty members who have already undergone through the Orientation/First Level Programme in an indentified broad area. The programme will be discipline specific with advanced developments in an identified subject under the concerned broad area. In addition, there will be Refresher Programmes, geared towards emerging cross discipline advanced studies to enable the participants of relevant disciplines to work together or contemporary application of new knowledge for industrial and social development and other allied aspects. The goal would be to equip and motivate the participants with advanced knowledge to accept challenges of quality teaching and research.

Workshops: These will be organized for shorter duration of one week (6 working days, 36 contact hours) and will be covering mainly for capacity building of academics, administrators and other stakeholders.

Short-term course of 3-6 days duration especially on research methodology and specialised themes of interest.

Some suggestive areas for Programme development and delivery:

The RCCBs and HRDCs will plan the programmes as above on the basis of needs and requirements of the institutions to be covered. However some suggestive inputs are given below

• i) Internal and External Accreditation
• ii. Technology Enabled Learning through online demos and support for capacity building for development of e-content, virtual labs and their effective use for teaching and research.
• iii. Holistic approach to the whole sector of education without fragmentation.
• iv. Broad and dynamic collaborative models for encouraging interdisciplinary and inter institutional collaboration in teaching and research.
• v. Engagement with Industry and relevant social sectors
• vi. Change in regulatory and governance structures of institutional system in a way that promotes research, innovation, creativity with incentives
• vii. Content design and development and curriculum reform focused on innovations and creativity
• viii. Faculty development and enrichment
• ix. Reforms in assessment and certification methods
• x. Knowledge up-gradation for effective teaching and research
• xi. Seminars and Workshops for some specialized emerging trends of advanced learning

Eligibility, Target Group and Duration

Teachers working in universities and colleges that are included under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, even though they may not yet be fit to be included under Section 12 (B), may be invited to participate in the Orientation Programmes and Refresher Programmes.

The teachers of colleges that do not yet come within the purview of Section 12(B), but have been affiliated to a university for at least two years, will be permitted to participate in the programmes/courses. However, they won’t be paid TA/DA and other allowances for attending these courses.

Part time/ Ad hoc/temporary/contract teachers who have been teaching for at least three academic sessions in an institution which has been affiliated to a University for at least two years may be permitted to participate in the Orientation Programme/ Refresher Course to enhance their skills.

For the Orientation Programmes, newly appointed Assistant Professors within two years of continuous service and all those teachers who require orientation for getting a higher grade will be allowed. Attendance in Orientation programmes would be must for placement in the higher grade pay.

For the Refresher Courses, participation in the Orientation Programme is a prerequisite for admission. However, in exceptional cases a teacher may be allowed to complete a Refresher Course prior to completion of an Orientation Programme. Also, there should be a minimum gap of one year between two courses, though it may be relaxed if adequate number of participants is not available or it is essential for the teacher to fulfil eligibility conditions for career advancement.

Duration and attendance

The Orientation Programme will be of four weeks duration, with minimum of 24 working days (excluding Sundays) and 144 contact hours (six hours a day).

The refresher course will be of three weeks duration, with minimum of 18 working days (excluding Sundays) and 108 contact hours (six hours a day).

If a participant fails to complete the requisite contact hours in a programme, he may be permitted to make up for the backlog hours at his/her own cost in another programme by the RCCB and HRDCs concerned.

Universities and colleges must allow interested teachers to attend UGC -RCCB and HRDCs programmes based on their eligibility otherwise valid reasons will have to be intimated to the teacher concerned in writing.

Permission to attend Refresher Courses during the period of the Teacher's Fellowship

Teachers' fellowships as well as Refresher Courses/Orientation Programmes are meant for professional development. A teacher interested in attending Refresher Courses (as per the requirements of career advancement) during the period of fellowship should not be denied the opportunity as it supplements his/her professional development. Therefore, the UGC has decided to permit the teacher fellows to attend a Refresher Course provided:

• i). He/she surrenders living expenses for the period he/she is attending the Refresher Course, and agrees to submit to the RCCB and HRDCs an undertaking to this effect through the concerned research centre before joining the course.
• ii). He/she attends the Refresher Course in the subject that is relevant to his/her research.
• iii). No extension in the teacher fellowship is sought on these grounds.

Evaluation of Participants

When possible, experts, preferably external, may be asked to assess the participants on the basis of multiple-choice objective tests, and give grades to participants, taking also into account other evaluations already done.

The grading should be as follows:

Those teacher participants who get Grade D are required to repeat the programme after a gap of one year without financial commitment to the UGC-RCCB and HRDC

The total marks are to be fixed at 100 and the same is distributed in the following manner:

The above distribution may be adjusted to meet specific requirements. The certificate issued to the teacher participant will only be valid if supported by the Grade based on the evaluation made during the programme.