Teachers at Universities will soon be graded and assessed annually in a system that will take into account their teaching and non-teaching activities. Under the UGC’s “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”, teachers will be graded on different parameters called Academic Performance Indicators(APIs).
The new system, called the Performance based Assessment System (PBAS) accords a weightage of 75% to teaching-related activities, their use of innovative teaching tools and examination duties. The remaining 15% will be assessed on activities outside of the purview of the classroom. These include student-centric activities such as the NSS/NCC, contributions to the department’s management, and participation in activities such as seminars, conferences, and so on.
Further, there is a proposal to also take into account “research and academic contributions” of teachers. Under a points system, there will be scores for different levels of publication. There will thus be different scores for publication of books, of chapters in books, of research papers, while research projects and consultancy projects will also be covered under this proposed points system.
While a committee on teachers’ pay revision had recommended self-assessment along with students’ evaluations, the latter does not figure in the new regulations. This is in line with the demands of teachers.