Autonomy For Excellence in Research

AUTONOMY FOR EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH

A.Bharathy & Parna Ray (Ph.d. Scholars)

Lecturers, Department of Management,

Pondicherry University Community College.

ABSTRACT:

Research has come a long way since independence in India, but unfortunately there is a general feeling that in the process of increasing the number, it is the quality of research that has been compromised.  On one hand, Research Scholars today suffer from lack of individual autonomy and on the other hand they utilise institutional autonomy to get away with substandard research outputs using easily available information and malpractices.  This paper suggests that sound research has to be built up with care and opportunities should be provided to young talented persons to produce quality research works.  In order to promote excellence in research – it is imperative that authorities like UGC,  NAAC and Universities intervene to correct our system of lop-sided autonomy.

KEY WORDS:  research a farce, lop-sided autonomy, transdisciplinary research, patent, innovativeness, centralised authority.

THE STATE OF CRISIS IN RESEARCH TO-DAY

• Isn't it a matter of surprise that out of the huge quantum of research in Economics – not one was able to predict in good time – the impending global economic crisis – or suggest solutions for the same?  In fact, the present economic crisis is in a way the result of following obsolete models of consumer behaviour – completely ignoring the possibility that multiple borrowers can simultaneously default. … and this event occurring in a large economy can set off major economic collapse the world over.
• Isn't it unfair towards teachers – in imposing compulsory requirement of having a doctoral degree before getting a job?  This is more of a farce and in any case is neither a healthy practice nor does it contribute to maintaining a high standard in the quality of the research work.
• Isn't the time the authorities came out of their stupor and faced the open reality that research in educational institutions has become a lucrative occupation and Ph.D writing shops have sprung all over the country wherein all types of corrupt practices are being followed?  That too, all this to-day is being done so openly that recently an advertisement had appeared in a leading daily that all relevant support would be provided to candidates pursuing their Ph.D – by this third party institute for nominal service charges.
• Is it not time that the brain-drain from our country in prevented through strategic initiatives so that they undertake the same research and development initiatives in our country, rather than in a foreign country, whereby our excellence in research is being very easily patented in foreign countries by their governments?
• Booming education sector, since 1990's, which was mostly prevalent in the undergraduate and post graduate courses is turning towards raining Ph.D degrees.  This has gone to the extent that one Research Supervisor applied for approval of 11 topics – all that were modified versions of his own Ph.D dissertations.  Further to say, for a position of lecturer or research associate anything up to 100 applications may be received of which 40 may be of candidates who have obtained their doctoral degrees from any central or state universities.

These examples in a sense typify everything that is wrong with research to-day.  Researchers have forgotten to research.  They have stopped questioning the age old axioms and theories.  They have stopped being creative and original in their ideas.  They are afraid to step out of the conventional low-risk path.  Otherwise they will be completely ignored and isolated by the mainstream journals, the university registered guides and their peers.  At stake is the Ph.D degree that is today the entry ticket to the lucrative world of academics.

Academicians and would-be- academicians to-day are flocking into research not because of their interest or aptitude but mostly due to compulsion.  Once into the system – they work under the constraints of time, scope, disciplinary boundary, research direction and expected outcome.  They do not have the freedom to pursue any non-conformist idea because no mainstream journal will publish them.  In the absence of individual autonomy or freedom – research today is degraded to the point where quality is being traded with quantity, innovativeness with conformity, and challenge with safety.  In this situation the scope of excellence in research is non-existent.

RESEARCH OVER THE YEARS

Research has come a long way since independence in India.  We can say that research is one of the striking achievements in independent India and there has been a number of researches being undertaken in various fields like sociology, science, education, technology, literature, environmental studies etc.  If we see the growth of our system per se then one should also expect growth in the number of researchers but unfortunately there is a general feeling that in the process of increasing the number, it is the quality of research that has been compromised.  This can be attributed to factors like:

• no objective studies have been made - a general complaint made against research.
• no standard definition on quality of researches.
• It has only become a distinguishable qualification in one's academic achievement to give us an edge over others.
• They seem to be more of opinion studies and less of innovations - this can be justified from the very few number of patents from research registered in our country.

Mr. Das, a teacher in the University of Delhi for the last 30 years, says that to the question whether the candidate has ever read a book in the social sciences from cover to cover, the answer is usually negative.  The ignorance of elementary facts is matched by eloquence on generalities.  Dissertations have a long list of references.  However candidates are unable to remember the argument of a research paper or book, although they have themselves referred them .

Most of the researches follow a standard format and has a questionnaire on topics such as "Attitude of working women towards marriage", "Prevalence of drug addiction among Youth".  The questionnaire is administered to about 150-200 respondents and compilation is done and the students are not required to learn the use of data sources, no intensive field work, nor well designed survey research, no statistical reasoning and they also get published normally in departmental journals, bringing disrepute to Indian Universities.

Several cases of malpractices in dissertations and, publication of already published data are observed due to lack of quality in research.  This tendency of plagiarisation can be directly traced to the proliferation of publishers & subsidies from Government and NGOs.

However there are also students located in different universities and research institutes who continue to produce professionally competent research works.  The evidence for this is available in the fact that we find monographs of young Indian scholars in the list of books of the most reputed national and international publishers.

HOW TO ACHIEVE EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH?

• Sound Research has to be built up with care.
• Some institutes have nourished sound research through their efforts and they should provide opportunities to young talented persons located in institutions where such facilities are not provided.
• Upgrade the text books to reflect the development of the last 50 years in various fields.
• Proficiency in reading in English language for graduate students must be made necessary.
• Policies for recruitment or promotion should be on the basis of academic competence rather than on political influence.
• UGC has to relax its regulation to avoid the proliferation of substandard doctoral degrees as a premium for teaching posts.
• Supervisors should not be pressurised to accumulate credits for producing large number of students under his or her guidance.

AUTONOMY FOR DEFINING EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH

Research has to be creative, innovative, should be breaking the box and even out of the box.  This means there should be autonomy in the formulation of research problems rather than standardized research problems.

We are increasingly seeing the old working class being replaced by the service class with innovative ideas.  This creative class requires the introduction of fundamental changes in the design discipline i.e. transdisciplinary research which can bring about innovative research outcomes.

Autonomy has to be provided to question the relativity of the age old axioms rather than trying to establish the cause-effect relationships through research work.

Instead of standardising the research activities, efforts should be made to evolve new procedure.  This will prevent malpractices by the candidate as well as by the supervisor and this will help to produce quality research work.

It can be argued that a good teacher does not necessarily mean a good researcher and vice versa.  Hence autonomy must be provided in creating the right environment that would foster research attitude among teachers rather than making it a prerequisite for a Lecturer or Research Associate post.  This then will ensure excellence in research.

LIMITATIONS FOR AUTONOMY IN RESEARCH

After all, civilizations and cultures are the cumulative result of researches.  The degree of a civilization's advancement depends on the quantity and quality of its research outputs.  Thus there is also the need for limitation in autonomy for defining excellence in research.

There is a need for a national body to be constituted by the Indian Government to regularly evaluate the research performance of Indian Universities and institutions.

The curriculum of research activities must be regularly updated to prevent it from becoming obsolete.  This is the need of the hour because research needs to adopt and transform to meet the need of this ever evolving society.

Authorities like UGC, NAAC should place more emphasis on quality research work rather than quantity- at the time of rating the universities.

Universities should groom faculties with research eminence to generate and sustain a culture of research.  Hence a reputed research team should spearhead the UG, PG and Doctoral students in the universities.

There is a need for patenting our research activities as the number of researches patented in the US is far more than what we have in India.  This would also reduce the malpractices and in turn sow the seeds for excellence in research through recognition of quality research work.

Another problem is that institutional autonomy granted to most universities has led to a decline in public funding of higher studies.  This has led to increase in industry-university partnerships resulting in sponsorship and commercialisation of research.  We hear reports of a

large percentage of medical research today being doctored by the drug manufacturing companies who fund research with the aim of creating a ready made market for their products.  Autonomy to researchers would mean the freedom to openly differ with the expected findings of say company X, even if it is the sponsor of the study.  In the absence of such autonomy - what is supposed to be a scholarly effort is becoming more of a business deal.

On one hand, research scholars today suffer from lack of individual autonomy and on the other hand they utilise institutional autonomy to get away with substandard research outputs using easily available information and malpractices.

This is unfortunate because India has a wealth of talent comprising the best brains in all fields of learning.  We also have a fairly efficient school and college education system and the infrastructure facilities in our universities are being upgraded to international standard.  In order to utilize these strengths and promote excellence in research it is imperative that we first correct our system of lop-sided autonomy.

Borrowing an analogy from medicine, the patient is in a critical state and there is every reason to believe that if critical interventions are not made, we will face the death of research in India.

References:

Das Beena (1993), "Sociological Research in India",Epw, June 5.

Du plessis Hester, Deshmukh Vijaya (2009), "Centre to Centre Approach to Facilitate Transdisciplinary Research ",University News, Jan 21- Fef 01, Vol 47, No. 04

Sodha Mahendra, Srinivas Reena (2009), "A Plan for Scientific Temper in Economic Research & Training" , University News, Feb 09 – 15, Vol 47, No. 06.