The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Unfair self-promotion
Marketing of awards is ominous for academia
Ranbir Singh

NOWADAYS, news items relating to award of fellowship to university teachers and other regular authors regularly appear in newspapers. In this context, attention may be drawn towards a ubiquitous but unwarranted trend in the academia with regard to running to the Press as soon as an announcement of an award of fellowship to a person holding a teaching-cum-research position on the faculty is made. Without waiting for the arrival of a formal communication in writing from a scientific or academic organisation/professional body, approaching the media becomes the first priority.

In my view, the whole activity is an indulgence in marketing of the self without first assuring the quality of the product. An obscure write-up that cannot be interpreted in the right context becomes another story of the day. The overzealous behaviour of the awardees is analogous to the marketing of academic achievements of pre-mature consequence that may later produce disgrace. Lack of skills to develop proper protocols and ignorance of methodology to achieve excellence in academic output are directly related to the quality of peer review sustained by intellectual honesty. Regrettably, both these basic tenets essential to the creation of new knowledge and its recognition are scarce in Haryana. For instance, an investigator or guide often includes his/her name as a co-author of a research paper for which the actual work is produced by a student scholar.

On most occasions, the faculty member’s contribution towards enhancement of knowledge and its significance to society is neither properly documented and explained nor put in public domain by uploading on the respective website for open access and scrutiny. It paves the way for self-promotion with a view to gain undeserved publicity in contravention to ethical values.

Since the public understanding of science, technology and engineering, its terminology and relevance to society is low in the state, the published write-ups only become a source of self-jubilation and eulogy. In case the award of fellowship is from a foreign body and the public image of the awarding institution is of questionable repute, the whole becomes futile and the resources wasted in the process. It eventually ends up as meaningless addition to the bio-data.

An award or selection for a fellowship is not as significant an issue as is often construed and certainly does not deserve attention. In fact, restraint ought to be exercised before rushing to the media. The guidelines for approaching the media have not been evolved in the academic institutions set up by the state government and, therefore, leave a void in which only default can grow.

There is an apparent distinction in getting a fellowship or associateship and becoming Fellow of an academic organisation of repute such as the Indian National Science Academy, American College of Surgeons, American Society of Chemistry, American Physiological Society or Royal Society of Britain, etc. There are thousands of registered societies in the world, including hundreds in India, which are of no consequence. These agencies have been selecting Fellows on receiving substantial amount of money, usually unaffordable for an Indian. The selection of a person as Fellow is an honourable exercise of conferring a title in recognition of a breakthrough contribution to the subject and cannot be equated with award of fellowship (amount of scholarship to pursue a short course of study or for learning a technique during research). It is a slow process in which citation values and impact factors play a great role.

In usual practise, highly reputed and acclaimed academic bodies themselves initiate the rigorous process of selection, in which critical evaluation of the work done by a person is performed by renowned peers. But in India, particularly, in the university system, award of a fellowship is considered an immensely honourable and an achievement fit to become media stuff. It is actually a self-generated erroneous sense of recognition. State-run institutions and universities need to not only dissuade their academic staff but also ignore pre-mature claims of suspect quality at the time of considering suitability for promotion under fast-track assessment system put in place by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The frequency with which the news items about a person having received fellowship appears in the media stir up “considerable loathing” in the minds of acclaimed scholars. Moreover, certain questions that naturally occur in this context following publication of the news item need to be honestly examined and answered. For example, what kind of material or scholarly advantage actually accrued to an individual as well as the supporting institution after completion of the fellowship? Has the participation in the event/completion of a course/research/study actually been able to enhance the image of the institution as well as improvement in the quality of teaching or merely utilised to create a false sense of scholarly advancement? The advantages, if any, need to be specifically put in place in a descriptive fashion on the records of the supporting institution’s website only after the tenure of fellowship has been exhausted.

The University News, published regularly by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), in addition to proceedings of a couple of seminars organised by the Society for Scientific Values (SSV), INSA and Indian Academy of Sciences, including its reputed journal Current Science, have regularly touched the above indicated issue. Prominent scientists such as the late Prof. Autar Singh Paintal, renowned neurophysiologist and formerly Director-General of the Indian Council of Medical Research, had to deplore the nasty and immature mentality of self-promotion through the media when it came to his notice.

First impression is truly the last impression!

THEY say “first impression is the last impression”, and it seems to be true. A new study has found that a Professor’s first interaction with pupils has a strong impact on them. Students in a physiology course at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine were asked to evaluate 16 Professors who lectured during the course.

They had the option of evaluating each Professor concurrently during the course, or waiting until the course ended. Students were allowed to change their minds before the evaluations were finalised at the end of the course.

The study found scores Professors received on early evaluations were markedly similar to the scores they received on evaluations made after the course ended.

And students rarely changed their minds about professors—only three percent of evaluations were revised before the evaluations were finalised.

“Students tended not to change their scores and comments, regardless of the time they submitted their evaluations. Hence, first impressions appear to be important,” wrote the researchers.

“The first lecture a faculty member gives to a class really sets the impression. The Professor is either going to click with the student’s learning style, or not,” said John A. McNulty, first author of the study.

In the most recent evaluations, the average score for basic science faculty was 4.2, and the average score for clinical faculty (physicians) was 4.38.

“We have a really good faculty,” McNulty said. “The distribution of scores is skewed toward the high end.” The findings were published in the journal Advances in Physiology Education. — ANI

CAMPUS NOTES

Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar
Varsity is overall champion

GURU Nanak Dev University has once again proved its supremacy by winning the Overall North Zone Inter-University Youth Festival Championship Trophy for the ninth time. The university also won music and literary trophies at the 26th North Zone Inter-University Youth Festival organised by the Association of Indian Universities and the Department of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, at Bundel Khand University, Jhansi, recently.

Resource centre for literature

The university has decided to establish a Resource Centre for Comparative Literature in the Punjabi Department for the promotion of Punjabi language. The centre will be established under the XI Plan General Development Assistance Scheme of the University Grants Commission, New Delhi, with a grant of Rs 5 lakh. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. A. S. Brar, said the resource centre would also be an asset for other universities in the region for enhancing research in languages like English, Punjabi and Hindi.

Refresher course in English

The Academic Staff College in association with the English Department of the university is organising a three-week refresher course in English for the approved teachers of universities and their affiliated colleges. About two dozen teachers of English from various universities and colleges are participating in the course, which will conclude on December 23.

Meanwhile, the Academic Staff College will organise a three-day short-term course on "Administrative and Academic Initiative by the University" from December 15 to 17. The main objective of the course is to develop professional skills of the academicians and administrators of the university. Dr Satish Verma, Director, Academic Staff College, said the course would be open for senior faculty members of the university, including Deans, heads of departments, Professors, Readers and Directors and Deputy Registrars of the non-teaching departments. The main objective of the course was to develop professional skills of the academicians and administrators of the university, he said, adding that the course would be organised on the basis of instructions given by the UGC and no participation fee would be charged.

Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana
Central assistance for varsity

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has recognised GADVASU and declared it eligible to receive central assistance under Section 12 (B) of the UGC Act. The recognition has been granted by a team of the UGC that had visited the university in the month of May for inspection and later submitted its report to the commission. The university authorities have also proposed to submit some projects to the UGC for financial assistance.

Tie-up with Saskatchewan university

GADVASU has entered into a partnership with the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, for graduate students' enrolment, strategic priorities, internationalisation, and increasing research intensiveness. The expected benefits from this partnership include graduate students' enrolment in units such as the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, School of Punjab Health and Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture and increase profile of the University of Saskatchewan in India.

Training programme

The departments of Veterinary Microbiology and Veterinary Pathology jointly organised a two-week training programme on microbiological and pathological laboratory techniques for Nepalese technicians. The FAO-sponsored project was aimed at training the technicians in the routine and advanced laboratory techniques and imparting knowledge on avian disease pathology.

— Contributed by G. S. Paul and K. S. Chawla