Varsities, colleges should send teachers on sabbatical leave for pursuing research: UGC panel

Universities and colleges should develop action plans to send mid-career teachers on sabbatical leave for pursuing research and writing, a panel set up the University Grants Commission (UGC) has recommended.

The four-member committee on "Promoting and improving quality of research in Indian universities and colleges" headed by professor P Balaram, former director, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, recently submitted its report to the commission.

"The UGC should encourage and support state universities and affiliated colleges to put in place a rigorous but generous program that would offer sabbatical leave to mid-career teachers for pursuing research and writing books and monographs which consolidated accumulated original research knowledge," the panel said in its report.

The report said mid-career national level sabbatical awards on a competitive basis for a year may be introduced enabling 50-100 faculty-members to pursue research which may also provide an opportunity for faculty to build collaborative contacts with major national and international institutions.

"Such opportunities must be mandated in both public and private institutions," the report said.

Developing classroom pedagogy, curricula and system of assessment, promoting academic integrity, remedial teaching, encouraging vernacular languages, use of technology and media platforms and policy internships, are among the other recommendations made by the committee.