73.Academic Audit in NIT Calicut – a failed attempt

 

In the  last  episode, we  have  discussed what is an Academic Audit and how it is implemented in a few universities abroad. One day, while I was casually talking to the Director, I mentioned about the academic audit to him. He was very eager to do this in our institution also at the earliest. I have observed that if he finds that something good is going on in a foreign university, he would like to copy it as early as possible. But knowing the mentality of our faculty, I said it will not be possible to implement it straightaway without convincing the faculty about the need for it. I suggested that we will conduct a 2-day workshop on academic audit with eminent academicians as invited speakers from different parts of India and ask all the members of faculty to attend the workshop without fail. We can also prepare a sample questionnaire for audit in this workshop, I proposed. He gave me the green signal for the workshop.

 We invited Academic Deans from 4 IITs and a former Vice Chancellor who was also the Chairman Board of Governors of an IIT for the workshop. In the college council, we invited any of the departments to prepare a sample questionnaire for presentation in the workshop and discuss and formally approve it for adoption in NITC. Head of the Department of Civil engineering volunteered to take up the work. Then and even now, Civil engineering department of NITC is one of the best departments in the college as far as teaching is concerned even though they may not be the toppers for research. As many of the senior faculty were involved in a lot of consultancy work and consequently they had less time for research, but as far as teaching is concerned Civil department was the best. A few senior members of faculty prepared a sample questionnaire and they discussed it in their department in detail and was ready to present it in the workshop.

During the two-day workshop, the experts from the IITs talked in depth on the need for academic audit and the former VC helped in putting the ideas into proper perspective. The draft questionnaire was presented on the second day and detailed discussion followed in the afternoon. Many members of faculty participated in the discussion and the draft questionnaire was modified incorporating the suggestions from the floor and was finally approved. This was further discussed in the College Council and it was decided to go ahead with the audit. As a first attempt, it was decided to do academic audit by the internal faculty only. Teachers from one department will be the auditors for other departments. Academic audit was done during the semester break systematically.

The academic audit data from all engineering departments were sent to me as the Coordinator of the audit. I studied all the audit reports thoroughly and consolidated the points scored by each department on different aspects and prepared a comparative statement. Before presentation in the college council, I discussed the results with the director and a few colleagues and all were of the opinion that this has to be presented in the college council. Based on the point scored, some ranking among the departments was inevitable. The percentage marks obtained for the best department was 80% whereas the one with the lowest score was 70%. It so happened that the Civil engineering department got the highest score and the lowest was for Computer Science (CS)department which was obviously the youngest department of the college. Most of the senior faculty members in CS including the Head of the department at that time were those who migrated from Electrical department by virtue of their PhD thesis having something to do with the area of  Computer Science. It was also obvious that this department was in a privileged position as the central Computing facility was under them. While the summary of the ranking was presented, I was very particular to point out that the ranking is purely based on the data collected and the margin is only from 80% to 70% which is quite normal. The fact that one department got 80% does not mean that they are perfect in all aspects and the one with 70% is too bad. The data has to be analysed thoroughly to find out which are the aspects in which each department has secured lower points and try how to improve on that.

 

However, the representatives from CS department was not at all happy with the results obtained. They started questioning the very basis of the audit and the ranking. The other departments which were placed on the lower end of the ranking table joined hands with CS department. They felt that the Civil engineering department got the first position because they have prepared the questionnaire and they demanded that the questionnaire itself has to be modified. My repeated remark that this ranking is not absolute  in anyway and if a few  departments have a  lower score does  not mean they are  too bad. Civil engineering had prepared the questionnaire only because they were the only department who volunteered to prepare it. Further, it was discussed threadbare in the 2-day workshop and subsequently in the college council. Strangely the Director kept a diplomatic silence on the whole issue. When the argument continued it was decided to modify the questionnaire. Then I suggested that the department which has the lowest score may take up the responsibility of modifying it.

I knew that the members of faculty of CS department will not be able to do it as they were among those who talk too much but do so little. Even though they were vociferous in criticising the questionnaire, they did not have any clue as to how to modify it. The  Head  of the  department  himself was a mediocre student of mine in MTech instrumentation and Control Systems  who managed  to get  into the CS stream only because  of his PhD thesis  on   image  processing which  was considered to be in  CS stream. Dr.M.N.Neelakantan  who was  the  only  senior  person who built up the  CS department had already superannuated.  Consequently, they could not make any major changes in the well-prepared original questionnaire. Anyway, the academic audit was done once again with the ‘revised’ questionnaire at the end of next semester. Once again, I tabulated the data and prepared the ranking. There was little difference in the top ranking and bottom lying department, only a few in the middle changed the places marginally. This time the critics did not have any answer to the problem since they themselves had prepared the questionnaire. The basic character of the department or its performance cannot change simply by changing the questionnaire. The second audit was done a few months before my retirement and I am not sure whether any academic audit has been done in NITC since then. Such a noble venture that could have continued from year to year was rejected only because of the lukewarm attitude of the Director and the ego of a few heads of departments who thought they are the paragons of virtue and no one can be better than them. It was really unfortunate that the Director who was very enthusiastic in the beginning had poured ice water on the whole effort, for reasons  only known to him.

Of late, Kerala Technical University has made it mandatory for all the engineering colleges under the university  to go through the process of academic audit every year. While I was in MES College of Engineering Kuttippuram, an auditor had visited MESCE and done some auditing . I am not sure whether the  University has processed these audit data from the nearly 150 colleges under it. The basic purpose of an academic audit is to analyse the data and take corrective steps to overcome any deficiency in teaching learning process in the institution. Self-correction  is the  objective not  by others  asking  for  corrective action. Otherwise, it becomes a futile exercise.