Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Output Measurement of Social Science Departments of Universities of India

Introduction
Research in a university speaks of the fertile minds and an environment of intellectual interaction in the university’s social science literature is expanding very fast. Quantitative research provides a pedestal to any university. A University in any country is formed by the Government or autonomous body or by a group of private professionals. The Government of India is responsible for arranging, allocating and distributing financial resources required by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for the establishment of various Universities in India for imparting higher education in India. Many universities are being aided by State Governments also. But all most all such aided universities are mainly governed autonomously by grants through UGC. There are a few institutes of national importance too who are mainly funded by Central Government. There are also quite a few institutions and deemed universities which are governed by educational trusts. Some colleges/institutes are also imparting higher professional education which are governed by private funds. Currently there are over forty Central Universities in India which have been established by an Act of the Indian Parliament. The higher education system in India being one of the largest in the world, the responsibility rests on the Central Government to devise policies with a view to improving the quality of higher education in India. Barring few universities and few professional institutes, most are having one or many Social Science Departments. Central government has also established Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) for the development of Research in various social sciences. The various social sciences considered by this council are : (i) Economics / Commerce / Management / Business Administration; (ii) Sociology and Social Anthropology / Social Work / Demography / Gender Studies; (iii) Political Science / International Relations / Geography / Public Administration; (iv) Psychology / Education /Criminology; (v) Other-Linguistics / Law etc. The present study attempts to find out the quantum of various types of output of Social Science faculty of the Various listed social science departments of the various Indian Universities/Institutes and how these are explained by financial and human resources available with the respective departments. The various types of outputs of a university social science department considered are grouped broadly under three categories and input indicators are grouped under two categories. For the Output Indicators the Broad Categories are: Academic, Research and Others including Administrative whereas Input Indicators are grouped under the categories of Human Resources and Financial Resources.
Evaluation of output in the form of papers published in pear reviewed journals in terms of the journal’s impact factors can be computed easily. Also their clubbing is feasible and one department can be compared with other department within the university and also one can have total impact factor contributed by such research papers of the various Universities/institutes/schools. A methodology is herby suggested/evolved through appropriate indicators which find the quantitative measures for other types of Output. As these measures are also have to be combined so that all the outputs are being placed on the same platform for various departments of the same university and these universities can be ranked objectively on the basis of total output, a proper weighting diagram should be obtained to have appropriate indices. The linkage of the clubbed output with the resources available with the universities can also be used objectively so that one may allocate the financial resource to the various universities for getting the more equitable output for much more progress in the social science departments of the Universities/Institutes.
Objectives of a study
1. To access the Research and Development in Social Science in Higher Education Institutes/Universities
2. To study the research trend in the various social science subjects for the various Universities/Institutes.
3. For each of the years under consideration and also for the last decade
2.1 Inter and Intra Ranking of Various Social Science Departments;
3.1 Ranking of Universities/Institutes for the overall index;
3.2 Ranking of Universities/Institutes in respect of papers in peer reviewed journals.
4. Interrelating the output of the Departments/ Universities with the input parameters so that one may use the same in order to allocate the financial resource objectively to the various universities for getting the more equitable output for much more progress in the social science departments of the Universities/institutes.
For the purpose of this study, the Social Science Departments considered are:
Economics; Commerce; Management; Business Administration; Sociology; Social Anthropology; Social Work; Demography; Gender Studies; Political Science; International Relations; Geography; Public Administration; Psychology; Education; Criminology; Other-Linguistics and Law

Secondary data review can be carried in order to short list the above list of higher education in Social Science by selecting those who are having one or more of the above mentioned social science departments. Faculty in position in the Social Science Departments of all the listed Universities/Institutes can be obtained.


Possible Methodology

In order to access the outputs of the various social science departments of the Universities/Institutes and which may correspond to the financial and human resources as inputs, the following list of indicators can be considered. The list also provides the corresponding data source for each and every indicator mentioned. Years of investigations can be from 2001 to 2010. A Questionnaire can be devised to seek the values of indicators directly from the Faculty/Research/Project/Library Staff and also by use of Administrative records of the Departments and/or University.


List of Output /Input Indicators and the Source of Data


S.No. Academic Output Indicators(Source of Data)
1. Number of students passed postgraduate course
1.1 Total number of students enrolled for postgraduate course (From Administrative Records)
1.2 Total Number of students passed (From Administrative Records)

1.3 No passed with more than 75% (From Administrative Records)

1.4 No passed with more than 60% and less than 75%
(From Administrative Records)
1.5 No passed with marks between 50% and 60%
(From Administrative Records)
2. Examination Related Work
2.1 Setting (Number) of Papers in a Year (From Administrative Records)

2.2 Number of Papers checked in a Year (From Administrative Records)

3. External Examiner
3.1 Number of external Ph.D. /D.Sc. Students examined (Census of Faculty)
3.2 Number of external M.Phil. Students examined (Census of Faculty)
3.3 Number of external Postgraduate Students examined for Practical (Census of Faculty)
4. Books published by faculty
4.1
Sale proceeds of the books published during the reference year (Census of Faculty)
4.2 Sale proceeds of the books published till the preceding to the reference year (Census of Faculty)
4.3 Number of times the books published during the current year issued by the library (From Libraries)
4.4 Number of times the books published up to the current year issued by the library (From Libraries)
4.5 Number/ Value of Books sold to the various Libraries (From Publishers)
4.6 Number/ Value of Books sold to the actual users (From Publishers)
5. Workshops organized by the department
5.1 Number of presentations made by the faculty of the department in Workshops (Census of Faculty)
5.2 Total number attended the Workshops (From Administrative Records)
6. Workshops organized by the departments of other universities/institutes
6.1 Number of presentations made by the faculty of the department in Workshops organized by others (Census of Faculty)
6.2 Total number attended the Workshops organized by others (Census of Faculty)
7. Papers Published in peer reviewed journals
7.1 Number of papers published in peer reviewed journals (having Impact factor) by faculty and students either jointly or singly (Census of Faculty/Research Students)
7.2 Impact Factor of various peer reviewed journals (The peer reviewed journals)
8. Seminars organized by the department
8.1 Number of papers presented by the faculty of the department in Seminars (Census of Faculty)
8.2 Total number attended the Seminars (From Administrative Records)
9. Seminars organized by the other universities/institutes
9.1 Number of papers presented by the faculty of the department in Seminars organized by others (Census of Faculty)
9.2 Total number attended the Seminars organized by others (Census of Faculty)
10. Number of students completed PhD/ D.Sc. during the current year (From Administrative Records)
11. Number of Students awarded M.Phil. during the current year (From Administrative Records)
S.No. Administrative and Other Output Indicators (Source of Data)
12. Administrative Work in Number of Hours in a Year (Census of Faculty)
13. Examination Related Work
13.1 Invigilation Work in Number of days in a Year (Census of Faculty)
13.2 Coding/decoding, result preparation etc. work in Number of days in a Year (Census of Faculty)
14. Number of Other technical publications by department (Census of Faculty)
15. Technical projects completed/ ongoing by department
15.1 Number of Technical projects completed during the current year (From Administrative Records)
15.2 Value of Technical projects completed during the current year (From Administrative Records)
15.3 Number of Technical projects on going during the current year (From Administrative Records)
15.4 Value of Technical projects on going during the current year (From Administrative Records)
16. Data Bases Created/ Being Created
16.1 Number of Data Bases Created (From Administrative Records)
16.2 Sale proceeds of these data bases (From Administrative Records)
16.3 Number of Data Bases Being Created (From Administrative Records)
17. Consultancy projects completed/ ongoing by various faculty
17.1 Number of Consultancy projects completed during the current year (Census of Faculty)
17.2 Value of Consultancy projects completed during the current year (Census of Faculty)
17.3 Number of Consultancy projects on going during the current year (Census of Faculty)
17.4 Value of Consultancy projects on going during the current year (Census of Faculty)
18. Number of other articles published in newspapers/magazines/others (Census of Faculty)
S.No. Input Human Resources Indicators (Source of Data)
19. Number of Professors in the department (From Administrative Records)
20. Number of Associate Professors in the department (From Administrative Records)
21. Number of Assistant Professors in the department (From Administrative Records)
22. Number of other faculties in the department (From Administrative Records)
23. Number of other research staff in the department (From Administrative Records)
24. Number of other non-teaching staff supporting
research/ project and consultancy activities in
the department (From Administrative Records)
Input Financial Resources Indicators (Source of Data)
25. Regular Funds for salaries and other heads of account (From Administrative Records)
26. Funds for projects (From Administrative Records)
27. Funds for consultancy (From Administrative Records and/or Faculty Census)
28. Royalties (From Administrative Records and/or Faculty Census)
29. Plan Funds (From Administrative Records)
30. Other Grants including own Resources (From Administrative Records and/or Faculty Census)

Additionally, faculty wise interviews to access their time use and importance to various activities of the Department can also be obtained through the Questionnaire. Satisfaction Level also needs to be ascertained from the Faculty of the Social Science Departments through the Questionnaire. The Part Questionnaire can also be devised to access the information regarding Importance of various activities as per prominent Policy Makers and management of the Social Science Departments and /or Universities. This data would be utilized to have weights for clubbing or for constructing various indices –for the various output groups and overall. After the data collection, the data analysis can be carried in order to meet the objectives of the study.

No comments:

Post a Comment