Gujarat Knowledge Consortium

Gujarat Knowledge Consortium

12/3, Jivraj Mehta Bhavan

Gandhinagar

WORLD CLASS UNIVERSITY SCHEME

I.PREAMBLE

Although the economic progress of India in general and Gujarat in particular is quite remarkable over a period, the glaring weak spot of the entire country is that it does not have a world class university; not a single Indian university finds a place in prestigious global rankings of the institutions of higher learning. Therefore, the Higher Education Department of Government of Gujarat has decided, of late, to ameliorate the situation by being proactive through several initiatives of Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat. As a part of these initiatives the Higher Education Department of Government of Gujarat has started providing substantive financial support to the universities of the State to enable them to gradually emerge as world class universities over a period.

It is a universally accepted and empirically validated fact that the world class universities have persistent track record of high quality (i) research and (ii) publications, reflecting creativity and originality of a very high order. Besides, the international visibility of the university also affects the world class status of a university. Obviously, therefore, any effort to promote a world class university must be targeted mainly at the pursuit of academic excellence focusing on research and publications related activities in such a way that these activities are nurtured in a sustained way and ultimately university gets a worldwide recognition. In other words, pursuit of excellence needs to be institutionalized for being an inbuilt part of the academic culture of a given university to emerge as a world class university.

It is needless to state that for this purpose financial provisions are absolutely necessary to create an appropriate academic culture and requisite support structure. At the same time, it is equally important that the funds provided for the purpose should be carefully and purposefully utilized so that the objective of achieving world class status can be efficiently achieved in a foreseeable future.

In view of these facts, the world class university scheme is prepared with the following guide-line for the rational, efficient, and effective use of limited resources at our disposal so that the goal of enabling some of our universities to emerge as the world class centers of academic excellence can be most successfully achieved over a period.

II.OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF THE SCHEME

Understandably, the efforts towards acquiring the world class status shall be based on clearly stated concrete, measurable, and achievable goals indicating theuniversity’s progress towards academic excellence over a period.

In this connection, the objectives of the scheme are stated below as a broad guideline:

(i)To give an impetus to research and publication related pursuits of the academic fraternity. For this purpose, all such activities need to be carried out in smooth and ‘user friendly mode’.

(ii)All therelevant academic activities should be planned well in advance andexecuted meaningfully, by avoiding any kind of ad hocism, so that these activities become purposeful and fruitful.

(iii)To achieve inclusive academic advance, the academic activities of the university should be planned in such a way that all academic institutions, including colleges, and all the academic disciplines [i.e. (i) of sciences and technology, (ii) of social sciences, including education, law, social work, commerce, management etc. and (iii) of languages, humanities, including philosophy, fine arts, performing arts etc.] get a fair representation in all the activities.

(iv) To promote and nurture the culture of academicexcellence among those academicians who have relatively longer stake in the university’s progress towards world class status. For this purpose, as far as possible, thepreference may be given to those teachers who are below the age of 55 years.

(v) To enhance international visibility of the university by undertaking collaborative research programmes, teaching programs, exchange programs for students and teachers, and by organizing international seminars/conferences etc.

(vi) Topromote a culture of overall academic excellence, a healthy spirit of academic competitiveness needs to begenerated among the faculty members and students of the university.

(vii)To make students also to be the active partners in the university’s progress towards excellence, they should be encouraged to participate enthusiastically in various curricular and extra- curricular activities including those promoted by KCG.

(viii)All these activities need to be recorded, documented, and reviewed objectively, to monitor the progress towards achieving the world class status.

(ix)An appropriate, independent, and effective mechanism of monitoring should also be set up so that objective assessment can be made periodically about the result-oriented implementation of the program of world Class University.

IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISM

The scheme shall be implemented by universities through a specially created center known as KCGCenter for Academic Excellence (hereafter Center)
The Composition of the Executive Committee of the Center shall be as follows:
Vice-Chancellor- Chairperson
Director of the IQAC shall be the Deputy Chairperson
Three Senior Professors [one each from (i) sciencesand technology (ii) social science disciplines, including education, law, social work, commerce, management, etc. and (iii) languages, humanities, including philosophy, fine arts, performing arts etc.] with proven track record of research and publication, to be nominated by the Vice Chancellor
A Teacher-in-Charge of students’ activities such as Students’ Welfare Officer/Student Dean etc.,to be nominated by the Vice Chancellor
Three Senior Associate Professors [one each from (i) science disciplines, (ii) social science disciplines including education, law, social work, commerce, management etc. (iii) languages humanities, including philosophy, fine arts, performing arts etc.] with proven track record of research and publication, to be nominated by the Vice Chancellor.
Three principals of the colleges or heads of such academic institutions, to be nominated by the Vice Chancellor
A nominee of the CEO, KCG.
Finance and Accounts Officer
Registrar- Member Secretary

Aims of the Center:

The Executive Committee of the Center shall spell out concrete, measurable, and achievable goals indicating the university’s progress towards academic excellence over a period of three or five years and state it clearly in its vision and mission statements and submit to theCEO, KCG.
To be more effective, the Executive Committee of the Center shall meet at least once in a month and keep the minutes of the meetings and Action Taken Report (ATR) and forward them to CEO, KCG immediately and regularly.
The Center shall operate as a single window to process all research and publication related pursuits and to trouble shoot all the problems confronted by the faculty members regarding their research and publication activities. The Centershall help the academic fraternity in tackling all administrative and finance/accounts related problems with regard to research, publication, and all important academic activities of the teachers and students. In other words, the ultimate objective of the Center should be to create an affirmative academic atmosphere by removing all possible bureaucratic hurdles and bottlenecks nagging the teachers and students involved in serious academic pursuits. For this purpose, a definite and operational mechanism must be developed for online disbursement of money, settlement of accounts, issue of utilization certificate, efficient trouble shooting etc. regarding all such activities.
To augment the effective functioning of the Center, all its activities should be properly planned by a team of subject experts in concerned areas and approved by the Center preferably at the beginning of the academic year. And a perspective plan prepared by the Center shall be sent to the CEO, KCG at the beginning of every academic year and a presentation shall also be made about the same at KCG for finalization.
All properly planned programmes shall be publicly and widely announced at least two or three months (preferably five to six months) in advance before their execution, in order to avoid ad hocism of any sort.
Moreover, to facilitate overall academic advance of the university, the activities of the Center should be planned in such a way that all the academic institutions, including colleges, and all the academic disciplines [i.e. (i) of sciences and technology, (ii) of social sciences including education, law, social work, commerce, management etc. and (iii) of languages, humanities including philosophy, fine arts, performing arts etc.] of the university get a fair representation in all the activities. If all the three groups of disciplines cannot get a chance in the same academic year due to paucity of funds or any other reason, then the remaining discipline-groups shall be given preference in the subsequent years by following a rational policy of rotation.
All the activities of the Center should be properly documented and published in the form of annual reports. The annual reports should be published and sent to CEO, KCG latest by the end of every academic year, latest by June-end.
Preference may be given to support deserving and meritorious proposals. Moreover, for promoting and nurturing the culture of academic excellence among the promising teachers of the university preference shall be given to those who are below the age of 55 years (because they are likely to be with the institution for a relatively longer period and thereby going to make a lasting impression on its future).
The ultimate objective of the Center should be to generate a healthy spirit of academic competitiveness among the faculty members and students of the university to promote the culture of overall academic excellence.
The academic advancement of the university towards a world class university over a reasonable period (say five years) may be gradual but must be incremental and relentless. Besides, it should be measurable by objective and verifiable indicators, specified by the universities themselves and clearly and unambiguously stated in the mission statements of the Center.

The Functions of the Center:

To provide seed money to prepare research proposals to the teachers with outstanding research performance as indicated by the number of research reports completed, research funds generated, patents registered etc.
To organize training programmes/workshops for (a) preparing research proposals, (b) research methodology, (c) writing research reports, (d) writing and publishing research papers, etc.
To provide financial assistance for conducting university research projects to Assistant Professors preferably below the age of 40 years [preferably one each from (i) sciences and technology, (ii) social sciences, including education, law, social work, commerce, management etc., and (iii) languages, humanities, including philosophy, fine arts, performing arts etc.] with Ph.D. who have not been able to get grant for research from any other agency, but have prepared a research proposal which is considered worth supporting by a team of two external subject experts appointed by the Center.In case of difference of opinion between the two experts a third expert’s opinion may be sought.
To provide grants to publish a book (through university publication unit or through an established/reputed publishers such as Grant Nirman Board) to Assistant Professors preferably below the age of 40 years [preferably one each from (i) sciences, (ii) social sciences including education, law, social work, commerce, management etc., and (iii) languages, humanities including philosophy, fine arts, performing arts etc.] with Ph.D. who have not published any book. But the manuscript of the book to be published should be approved by two external subject experts.In case of difference of opinion between the two experts a third expert’s opinion may be sought.
To provide funds for organizing three international/national/state level symposia/ colloquia/ seminars/conferences etc. [preferably one each (i) in sciences and technology, (ii) in social sciences, including education, law, social work, commerce, management etc., and (iii) in languages, humanities including philosophy, fine arts, performing arts etc.]. To make these programmes most effective they should be planned and approved by the Center at least two to three months (preferably five to six months) in advance clearly specifying, by a team of subject experts, the theme, panels, speakers, paper presenters, selected/expected participants etc. As far as possible these programmes should be evenly spread over the academic year in such a way that the resources of the university are not over stretched and conflicts of demands are avoided. Special care should be taken to see that these programmes are truly national/international so that the visibility of the university and its faculty members is enhanced at the national and international level.
To provide funds to deserving faculty members [preferably one each from (i) sciences and technology, (ii) social sciences, including education, law, social work, commerce, management etc., and (iii) languages, humanities including philosophy, fine arts, performing arts etc.] to attend national/international academic events such as conferences, seminars, workshops etc.

Eligibility Criteria: Assistant Professors/Associate Professor with (a)Ph.D., (b) having completed at least one research project, (c) published at least one book or three research papers/ book chapters in reputed journals/books, and (d) not older than 55 years.

To organize short term/long term study trips/visits for a period ranging from two weeks to three months for carrying out research programmes with national centers of excellence [preferably one each (i) in sciences, (ii) in social sciences including education, law, social work, commerce, management etc., and (iii) in languages, humanities including philosophy, fine arts, performing arts etc.].

To invite outstanding national/ international scholars [preferably one each (i) in sciences, (ii) in social sciences including education, law, social work, commerce, management etc., and (iii) in languages, humanities including philosophy, fine arts, performing arts etc.], preferably of a very high academic stature, as ‘scholars-in-residence’ for a period ranging from two weeks to three months. Since the objective of the scheme is to provide opportunities to the faculty members and students of the university to interact intensively with such great minds/scholars, apart from organizing only lectures by such scholars some meaningful interactive sessions (for instance to discuss the research related problems of the students/faculty members/ department/faculty or to discuss some important research areas of general interest) also should be organized.
To promote international collaborations in teaching and research and also to undertake international exchange programs for students and teachers.
To institute awards for outstanding institutions and teachers under the ‘KCG Award Scheme’ specified in Appendix A.
The Center shall also organize a number of activities promoted by various initiatives of the KCG, such as Saptdhara, Sandhan, Knowledge Management Program (KMP), Udisha, Academic and Administrative Audit (AAA) etc., since development of the university should also reflect the overall development of students and teachers.

The broad break up of allocated funds/grants for various purposes

Specified in the concept note shall be as follows:

Research and Publication GrantMaximum 30%

(for activity no. i, ii, iii, and iv)

Conferences/Deputations etc.Maximum 20%

(for activity v and vi )

Study Trips/ Maximum 15 %

Scholars-in- Residence,

International Collaborations,

And For Inviting Nominations for Awards*

(for activity vii, viii, ix and x)

KCG Initiatives Maximum 25%

(for activity xi)

Administrative Expenses Maximum 10%

*Awards will be sponsored by KCG.

NATURE OF ASSISTANCE

Under this scheme, universities shall be provided financial assistance in the form of annual grant as decided from time to time. The annual grant shall be given in four installments as follows:

ELIGIBILITY

(i)The first installment shall be given to all the universities of the State from grant earmarked under World Class University scheme, on pro-rata based on students’ enrollment of each university during the previous academic year.

(ii)Theremaining installments shall be released to all the universities depending upon their academic track record as reflected in their research and publications, and the perspective plans submitted by them.

Evaluation of their academic track record shall be based on average per teacher performance of the universities on the following criteria:

(a)Research will include (i) Total number of Ph.D.s produced in last five years, (ii) (a) total number of research projects completed in last five years and (b) total research funds mobilized in last five years, (iii) number of patents registered in last five years, and (iv) number of research consultancy projects and revenue generated, divided by total number of teachers of the university.

(b)Publications will include (i) total number of books published in last five years, (ii) total number of research papers published in peer reviewed national and international journals and publications in last five years, and (iii) total number of chapters contributed to edited books of repute in last five years, divided by total number of teachers of the university.

For this purpose the universities shall make a presentation at KCG, consisting of (a) the data regarding research and publications of last five years, as specified above, and (b)an annual perspective plan indicating concrete details of the activities they intend to carry out as specified in the scheme above, along with an overall five year.

ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES

Universities shall make all efforts to promote a culture of research and academic excellence through implementation of this scheme.
Universities shall establish the “KCG Center for Academic Excellence” for the purpose of planning and implementing proposed activities specified above in its functions.
Universities shall constitute the Executive Committee of the Center, as specified above, for planning, executing and monitoring its activities.
Universities shall ensure that (a)the funds allocated under the scheme are utilized effectively and (b) timely reports of the activities are sent to the CEO, KCG.

ANNUAL REPORT AND DOCUMENTATION

Universities shall submit annual report of the Center to CEO, KCG by the end of the academic year, latest by June-end. The report shall give all the details of each and every activity carried out by the Center, with all specific details such as photographs, names of participants in each activity, dates and duration of each program, funds spent, brief evaluative report regarding each activity including impact evaluation of each activity, difficulties confronted in executing the programmes, if any, suggestions, if any, for further improvement in future etc.