Dear Students,
LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think faculty members should be relieved of administration work at B-schools?
BEST RESPONSE
Faculty members should engage in substantial preparation for the teaching of their courses. They should meet industry stalwarts and incorporate their feedback in the curriculum. B-School should give them time for carrying research work and creating intellectual properties. Administration work puts unnecessary burden on their shoulders and the politics involved can also distraught the student-teacher relationship. There should always be an independent staff to look after administration so that academics do not suffer.
- Raghav Jain, Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH).
OTHER RESPONSES
Faculty should be relieved of all the administrative work. Administrative work reduces the quality time a faculty can devote to the students. There should be a dedicated body to look after all the administrative work,especially regarding the college website, hostel affairs, housekeeping, admission paperwork. A dedicated body can only ensure no work is ignored or postponed due to other commitments. Also it will reduce the required lobbying by student committees as the 'convincing' effort will be down to minimum as one can expect the designated people to be completely focused towards the institute's betterment.
- Ameya More, IMNU, Ahmedabad.
Besides teaching, a faculty must be in continuous research to bring newer aspects of knowledge to the class room. People of academic excellence only should be kept as faculty and their remuneration must be adequate to attract the best talent. However, as the education has become a corporate affair, we live with the fact that institutions maximise profits and give the best education with the best faculty and labs that need investments. Hence involving faculty in admin work must be seen as an extension of the academic work and should be encouraged case to case.
- Abhishek Barla, Florida Institute of Technology, Florida, USA.
Faculty members should certainly be relieved of administration work at B-schools unless the person himself/herself volunteers for it. There have been cases where a faculty member is burdened with too much of administrative work which results in the person being able to pay less attention to the core areas of teaching and research. The emphasis should rather be on research and developing new tools for better delivery of education to the students. However the inputs of faculty members with respect to the administrative processes to be followed should definitely be taken.
- Shivang Ganatra, IIM Ranchi.
Faculty members can learn more if they do administration work at B-schools. Care must be taken that faculty members get minimum administration work so that they develop their skill as faculty and continue their work. It is felt that removing administration work from faculty member's job may take them away from administration job of the institutes.I feel that IIM-A's initiative may be in the right direction.
- Rituparna Saha Ray, Fr. C. Rodrigues Institute of Management Studies, Navi Mumbai.
Faculty members, especially those in the B- Schools, need to continuously update themselves, apart from undertaking research works as well as consultancy projects. They are to publish/ present papers on regular basis, in order to constantly improve their quality in teaching, by also introducing innovative/ interactive methods of learning. Hence, additional administrative responsibilities, if any, may be regarded as stumbling block.
- Kambala Satya Prakash, Alluri Institute of Management Sciences, Warangal.
The faculty members at B-schools are involved in lot of activities apart from their core activity of teaching which includes external projects, research etc. So they are already burdened with lot of activities so in order to maintain the quality of their work they should not be over burdened and administrative activities does not form the part of their core activities So the faculty members should be relieved of administrative work but to take the benefit of their vast experience, they can supervise and guide the administrative activities.
- Uday Parikh, Amrut Mody School of Management, Ahmedabad.
The most crucial factor that differentiates any B-school is the kind of faculty members it has. Recruiters have often raised their concerns over enormously lacking research quality at B-schools as a result of which they find the MBA graduates unemployable. Faculties at B-school preside over numerous committees, from cultural to admissions, as a result of which they spend larger pie of their time in administration adding little quality to their research aspect which in turn affects the knowledge base of their students. Students could also be attributed to various faculties to assist them in their research and learn in the process.
- Tushar Shah, School of Petroleum Management, PDPU, Gandhinagar.
Prioritising work should be the concern. As quality of the teaching is the thing that has to be constantly under check. Any work which affect it adversely should be removed from the list. So as soon as administration work hits the efficiency and quality of teaching the faculty should revealed from it.
- Jimit Parikh, St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies, Ahmedabad.
Getting relieved from the administration work would not be a proper decision. As involving faculty members in administration work would improve the overall management of a B-school. But as it is said that ‘excess of anything is bad’. So the phrase is applicable here too. The main work of a faculty at B-schools is to facilitate and provide knowledge to the students. If they are given too much burden of the administration work, then it may degrade their efficiency. Thus, the main sufferer would be the students who are joining B-schools with enormous dreams for their future.
- Saurabh Kumar, Institute of Management, Nirma University.
Being centrally funded institutes, IIM and IIT seemingly tend to focus on administrative issues too. Probably, MHRD should interfere with the functioning of IITs and IIMs to ensure that academic work doesn't overshadow teaching and research.
- Lalit Soni, St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies, Ahmedabad.
Usually, faculty members work along as a part of administration. This limits their time for teaching and with minimal spare time to carry out research work. If the faculty is relieved from the burden of administration then they could focus more importantly on research projects. This in turn would be more fruitful to the success of an individual as well as progress of institute. The faculty is main resource for any B-school and if it is applied to futile purpose then it will only lead to comprise on other aspects.
- Shivam Chhabra, Integral University, Lucknow.
The faculty at a B-school participates in three sets of honorable duties: teaching, research and service. Service duties entail all of the administrative work that keeps a college running and growing. Some administrative work like evaluating other teachers for promotion, sitting on committees for creating and evaluating curricula, overseeing discipline etc. can be performed only by the one well versed in the art and science of teaching. Also, teaching is not an all year job in B-schools and hence, most administrative work can be managed with little stress. While their burden can be lessened, there is rarely a substitute.
- Archita Gupta, N.L.Dalmia Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai.
Due to the involvement in the number of activities other than academic, the efforts of the faculties are fragmented across unproductive stuff and it defeats the sole purpose of the high class faculty. If the challenge of knowledge creation is to be met over the next decades, a paradigm shift is necessary. B school has to step up emphasis on research area. To solve the problem of research deficit, faculty at B school should definitely be relieved from administration work so that they can concentrate their efforts on key area and produce some fruitful work.
- Vivek Patel, Institute of Management Nirma University (IMNU), Ahmedabad.
Your responses should reach us at edu@business-standard.com by Monday evening every week. Please ensure that your responses do not exceed 100 words. Avoid attachments and email your full name, institute's name, batch and complete mailing address. The student who gives the 'Best Response' will be awarded Rs 500.
THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: Do you think AICTE could help better management education in the country?
