A new study proposes the establishment of student evaluations to pinpoint skills gaps and areas for academic training, using an HR scorecard framework.
While the Indian and Australian higher education systems are very different, the study by Vartika Kanagat and Sunita Sharma, from India’s Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda carries eerie echoes of the Australian system.
The authors researched student perceptions of technical teaching skills (such as ability to engage and encourage students in class) and soft skills (such as appearing professional, motivated, well dressed and punctual). They surveyed 1949 students from their university and found students rated teachers highest for being well qualified and professional, but lowest for ensuring discipline and encouraging engagement in online and offline sessions.
The student examined the possibility of applying a Human Resources Scorecard framework to determine how staff contributed to the university’s core goal, in terms of student perceptions of performance.
Soft Skills were consistently rated higher than technical teaching capabilities across demographics with younger students and also male students most likely to carry a negative perception.
Using the framework, the study suggests addressing the gender and age divide on perceived teaching performance with specific training for academic staff.
Indian institutions are seeking to transform into world-class universities by 2047 in line with a national vision of Viksit Bharat – the government’s vision for national transformation. This is a similar deadline for Australian institutions, which are being asked to transform by doubling student numbers in approximately the same time period, while also improving performance in line with Government-mandated goals.
While the Indian and Australian systems are coming from different places, the requirement to transform, the yardstick of improved outcomes for domestic students, the Government requirements for change and the timeline have interesting similarities.
“By integrating student feedback into HRSC (Human Resources Score Card)-driven performance management systems, Higher Education Institutions can bridge competency gaps by offering customised training programs, mentoring across disciplines, fostering lifelong learning, and enhance teaching–learning processes for value creation,” the authors conclude.
The topic of training Australian academic staff in teaching capabilities will be one of many aired at the Future Campus HE People & Performance conference in June this year, hosted at RMIT University in Melbourne on June 22-23.