Though the teachers routinely evaluate students, the Garhwal Central University, Swami Ram Tirtha (SRT) campus at Badshahithaul has started the process of students evaluating their teaching faculty. The marks given by the students will also be considered during promotion of the faculty members. The task of faculty evaluation has started with distribution of forms to the students in all the departments.
There have been various cases of students in higher education complaining of negligence by their teaching faculty. On the other hand, students bunking classes of particular professors is also common. Taking cognisance of such factors, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has started an experiment in the SRT campus here. As part of this initiative, forms have been distributed to students for feedback on the teaching faculty. A total of 10 questions regarding the subject knowledge, personality, evaluation, dedication towards academics, commitment and other aspects related to the faculty member have been asked of students in the forms.
The students are required to categorise each of the qualities into very good or good, satisfactory or unsatisfactory amounting to a total of 10 marks. The work of any faculty member receiving less than five marks will be considered unsatisfactory. The promotion of the faculty member in future will also depend on grades received in the evaluation by students. The identity of the students has been kept secret in the forms for faculty evaluation.
The SRT campus director Professor RC Ramola said that a meeting had been held with heads of the departments on this subject. Forms for evaluation of the teaching faculty are being given to the various departments, he added. The initiative for evaluation of the teaching faculty by the students has been welcomed by the students on campus who believe that such a move might help further improve the level of teaching and academics here.