A periodic (quarterly or bi-annual or annual) appraisal of a faculty in an academic institution (College or University) is a healthy practice to check the performance and provide adequate guidance or counseling for the faculty so as to improve his/her performance and for making better contributions towards meeting the academic goals / standards of the institution. In business organizations also, 360 degrees or 720 degrees performance appraisal is carried out for counseling the employees and for total quality management. In this appraisal process, faculty are evaluated based on certain parameters or indicators which vary across the institutions and across the countries also. For instance, in India, faculty are asked to fill a "Self-Appraisal Form" (annually) indicating their teaching work, administrative work, research publications, editorial work, research consultancy work, awards / honours (if any) and support their claims with proof. Some points are given for each criteria and net points are consolidated to appraise the performance of the concerned faculty. I like to know the parameters / indicators for evaluating the faculty performance and weightage (if any) for the same! Thank you..
http://www.bu.edu/handbook/appointments-and-promotions/evaluation-of-faculty-performance/
http://www.uwo.ca/facultyrelations/faculty/ape.html
http://www.whatishumanresource.com/360-degrees-performance-appraisal
In some universities, students need to rate the teaching quality at the end of the course.
some institutions follow self appraisal and linking it with students feedback and head of the department confidential report at the end of the semester to assess the actual performance of the faculty.
There are many documents from various Universities, as refer above and e.g. https://shp.utmb.edu/faculty_handbook/SEC14-15.pdf.
I think, that for each faculty member should be evaluated in:
1. Research (have the mean value number of papers per year.)
2. Teaching evaluation by students
3. PhD students
4. Managerial involvement in the Department or University in general.
UNFORTUNATELY:
1. Teaching (Students feedback): Students give high score to the professor who give high marks
2. Research (number of published research, quality of journals, grants): Most of the head or deans has less publication than their faculty, so the higher the quality researcher the most suffering faculty!
3. Community services: University get more money for the training courses than some other institutions
4. Administrations, committees membership, etc (Department chair confidential reports): Getting a position in the uni depends on who are you and who is behind you! It is affected by relations and racism.
In fact, there are many indicators or parameters for evaluating the performance of a faculty in an academic institution. These include the pillars as said by Kamal and Aiman, teaching, research, community service and Administrations and committees membership.
I usually add a fitth pillar to the pillars mentioned above, ethics and values. I believe ethics and values are very essential in learning and teaching.
Self-assessment ,student assessment or institutional assessment etc. are now-a-days required mainly because society also now asked for accountability of university and its staff. With increase in number of institutions if such measures are not taken then it will be detrimental to the system. For a teaching faculty in university department a balance between teaching and research should be maintained. If research component is missing then in long run students will not be properly trained for pursuit of advanced knowledge. If proper teaching is not there then also students will fail miserably in their life. I have often observed that a faculty member is more popular among students if he derives each and every steps and nothing is left for students to think 'how and why'. In my opinion this is not a good practice. On the other hand it is equally not good for a teacher who ignores teaching in name of research. A proper balance must be kept.
The other involvements like organization of seminars/meetings, administration etc are also adds to performance of a faculty member.
Well, in my point of view it should be based on certain parameters.
1. Students' feedback (Most imp. for academic section)
2. Research publications
3. Overall citations and number of graduated students
4. Research grant amount and related projects
5. Departmental activities (Positions in key committees)
6. Whether any unique award holder (IEEE Fellow or winner of any top class national fellowship), performance of his/her group in any competitions
7. Reputation of the faculty across the campus, based on all the academic activities and personal behaviour
Teaching, Research and Administrative Work are the three main pillars for the faculty in India. Our friends here are absolutely correct that students give evaluation reports on faculty at the end of the semester, and some Institutions have the good practice of honouring the deserving faculty as "Best teachers" etc. H-index, research papers in SCI-E journals with good impact factors, editorial work, conference work etc help the research values of faculty. Mahfuz is 100% correct on stressing "ethics and values" as one of the important parameters. In addition, faculty are also expected to carry some administrative work load. It is interesting to know about "Community Services" as a parameter in this list. Some friends may elaborate on this pillar - thanks!
With regards, Sundar
Students submit evaluation for the courses they studied at the end of the semester. The form includes their satisfaction. The overall evaluation depends on the students' evaluation, research, and community service.
Dear Sundarapandian: In my opinion, the Schools, Colleges, Universities and other Knowledge Institutions should not need to sell their image. Quality is a prerequisite for their existence and that they should practice everyday. Something is deeply wrong in these social structures and probably in the society in general. Since the first school day, when the parents let their child in the school, that the society has the duty of the guaranty the maximum quality for the education of their child.
Indicators or parameters for evaluating performance of a teaching faculty include his teaching proficiency as reflected from his students' performance in exams and students objective feedback; his research accomplishments including projects handled, and their output, quality publications, Ph.D. guidance, extramural projects, patents, knowledge generated/technology transferred; extension activities like participation in scientific events, etc. Further, faculty engaged in administrative or managerial assignment are evaluated based on their administrative/managerial skill, interpersonal relationship and related experience.
Dear António,
may be that schools etc should not sell their image, but they definitely do so because of funds and other supports like machinery, lecturers.
I want in this forum avoid to repeat what correctly reported by most partecipants, but only to trail the singular situation of my country. If someone has the same problem, he can discuss about in this occasion.
In Italy, in particular, there is the problem of order media, tables and charts published in the newspapers of this and last year suggest a southern inefficiency of universities, greatly influencing the choices of many young people at the time of enrollment at the University.
News presented thus not opposed to each other universities on the basis of the quality of research and teaching, but according to their geographical origin, creating more dangerous rifts in a context in which the socio-economic differences between north and south are already too deep.
American Universities have a ranking system, and the list of top 100 or top 200 Universities is announced every year, which helps the students to decide where to do their undergraduate / postgraduate programs. Infrastructure, library, labs, location, facilities are all physical requirements, and real attractive features are the strength of faculty, their areas of specialization, research projects carried out. In addition, PhD programs, scholarships, TA, RA, fundings, alumni support, and placement / training also hold as attractive features of the Universities. To ensure good performing faculty, a strong appraisal system is indispensable, and 360 degrees / 720 degrees performance appraisal system may be regularly conducted and counseling be provided for faculty. In this context, the parameters for the appraisal system are very important. Best wishes, Sundar
I fully agree with most of the attempts to evaluate success or quality, however, we tend to use more and more often very easy measures such as impact factors, citation factors, RG scores etc, but forget two important issues: 1) quality is never reflected on a valid way by (mere) quantity and 2) such parameters should be corrected for important factors such as a) research age, b) achievements, c) experience etc. etc. A while ago I have started to assess possibilities to correct such scores like the Hirsch index by RESEARCH AGE; therefore, we created the so called Carbon_h factor which relates the Hirsch factor to the research age. And indeed, the index works quite fine as it's development is quite linear over the years, so you can predict success and also compare people being at different research age.
You can download the referring paper under PlosOne: The Carbon_h-Factor: Predicting individuals’ research impact at early stages of their career. PlosONE, 6(2), e28770.
All the best, CCC
Dear Sundarapandian,
It is a remarkable question. Evaluation should always take place in any educational institutions. So we can know how things are going on. There are different criteria for evaluating faculty performance. They can be summarised as follows:
Classroom teaching
Number and Quality of publications
Research and/or creative activity (independent of publication)
Supervision of student research, including serving on masters ’ and doctoral committees
Student advising
Campus committee work, service to college
Activity in professional societies (hold office, edit journal, etc.)
Public or community service
Competing job offers
Consultation (government, business, etc.)
Personality factors
Personal qualification (academic degrees, professional experience, etc)
Please see attached file.
Dear Mohammad Hamad Al-khresheh:
Thank you for an excellent reply! You have highlighted many important parameters for the appraisal of faculty..
Dear Sundarapandian, I answered your question yesterday, but for some reason unrelated to my will, my answer did not come out published, probably a problem with my pc. I think great the question and I have the experience of my unit (School of Dentistry of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo) and it will be my pleasure to share with you and the followers of your question. The University of São Paulo has a sprayed courses evaluation system, it is made by departments, then the departmental evaluations are combined in an assessment of the unit (School) and the set of faculties assessments, courses and organs of the University of São Paulo is then summarized, worked analytically and statistically to participate in the international rankings. Let´s starting with the department (primary drive). Are chosen by each department 3 experts in the same departmental field, divided as follows:
1. An expert from the University of São Paulo (in a different unit assessed);
2. An expert from a Brazilian public university (usually a Federal university ) and;
3. An international expert who is preferably outside the South American continent.
The committee made visits to the department in question, its facilities, lecture theaters, laboratories, basic disciplines, preclinical and clinical disciplines, clinical facilities, support and meeting rooms, rooms for teachers, students, physical structures, furniture, equipment , media (telephone, internet, etc.). Individual interviews with some teachers randomly selected are held by work regimen scheme (partial time and full time) and assessed the teachers inserts in the areas that underpin the university (teaching, research and extension -Assistance), in addition to administrative activity (administrative management). Also evaluates the joint department and unity with society. Teachers are evaluated for quantity and quality of scientific publications, resources from federal government funding agencies through research projects and educational projects. An item has been considered of high importance in the last decade: the integration of graduates into the labor market stops evaluate the hand of quality work formed by the course. Well, that's basically what is done every four years. I hope I have contributed to your request. Big hug, Vinicius.
Dear Vinícius Pedrazzi - thank you for detailed views!
A good practice kept in some of the Universities I previously worked was this - Faculty seminars. In this series, faculty give lectures on topics of their interests - mostly their own results and some times, some new research work done in their field of interest and this is delivered to an audience consisting of other faculty in the Universities (from many Departments), MS / PhD students etc. No appraisal is taken in such seminars, tea / biscuits are served and it is just to get-to-know one's research. - Sundar
Dear Sundar, in Brazil there is unfortunately a lot of corruption at many levels, including the university, which is not proud of anything. But the assessment system has resulted in some gains, as the experts from other colleges / universities often they see problems that we have no jurisdiction to even envision, for example, when I and my colleagues in the integrated clinical discipline (where I teach there 25 years) and were all part-timers (24 hours per week) we had 16 hours of clinical activities and 2 hours of lectures. The experts were unanimous that with 18 hours of dedication to undergraduate teaching, it was not possible in the Rectory require a lot of scientific production. From the recorded report by experts, there was a "relaxation" in the collection of our research to understand that our mission as an undergraduate was fundamental and took a long time, and also the Rectory recognized that the time was devoted to the clinical practice in our private offices was essential for better education of clinical practice to undergraduates. But every year we have, of course, internal assessments between congeners, where seminars, meetings, workshops, among teas, coffees and biscuits theorize (very) which does not always turns into practice. Brainstorming & leisure. Cheers ... ViP
In Tunisia Conferences (Sousse, Monastir and other cities), chocolates and cakes are also served along with the usual biscuits! Tunisia is famous for chocolates..
Dear @Sundar, the first paper introduces a new proposal for Performance Evaluation of
Sudanese Universities and Academic staff using fuzzy logic. Second paper Faculty Performance Evaluation in Accredited U.S. Public Health Graduate Schools and Programs: A National Study provides baseline data on evaluation of faculty performance in U.S. schools and programs of public health!
http://www.ijcit.com/archives/volume3/issue5/Paper030516.pdf
Two more papers regarding the issue of parameters for evaluating the performance of a faculty in an academic institution are attached and they are available at Research Gate!
Article PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT INDICATORS FOR ACADEMIC STAFF IN MAL...
Article PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF TEACHERS IN UNIVERSITIES: CONTEMPO...
In my view, self-appraisal is very important for all faculty. If we periodically assess our performance on many categories ourselves, then it will be relatively easy for us to meet an appraisal committee any time and give our performance according to the categories considered by the committee. For academics working in Universities, research work is an important category for the evaluating committee.
Dear Vaidyanathan I agree with your idea od self-appraisal which is followed in several universities. But,you have hinted that more weightage may be given to research work. I know several excellant teachers who have developed original teaching methods and experiments. Should this not be considered equivalent to research work?
Both research results and educational results (methods, experiments.....) should be evaluated as a contribution to the faculty's performance! Dear @Rasbindu, yes, this should be considered equivalently!
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