Faculty Development, Motivation and Retention

Faculty Development and Retention Policy: Role of Faculty in Academic Excellence

Report Date: 26 August 2003

Objectives

To develop the institute as a Center of Excellence in university level education requires that faculty is motivated to contribute to the:

1.      Excellence in teaching standards by actively participating in the development of courses, curriculum and instruction methodology.

2.      Excellence in R&D through research publications in journals and other magazines

3.      Faculty development process that is goal oriented and attracts full-time, highly qualified and industry renowned faculty members, and encourages their continuous development in the system.

4.      Industry-Academia interactions through membership in professional associations, participation in conferences, consultancy, industry projects, etc.

5.      Student-Teacher Interactions through involvement in academic counseling, student projects and student events and activities.

6.      Institutional Development through participation in various committees and their activities and events at the institute.

Methodology

To meet the above objectives, the faculty development and retention policy needs to:

• Encourage the faculty to contribute to the development of the instruction methodology, courses and curriculum. This requires motivation and positive reinforcement for the time, effort and commitment put in by the faculty members.
• Encourage faculty to undertake R&D. This is much harder and more tedious than repeatedly teaching previously taught courses. The institutional incentives should make involvement in R&D more attractive than mere teaching of courses.
• Encourage faculty to participate in faculty-industry interaction events. Faculty requires flexibility and infrastructure for establishing ties with the corporate sector professionals, supervising industry projects, and undertaking research projects to solve industry problems.
• Implement a faculty hiring policy that attracts highly qualified faculty and provides benefits and remuneration commensurate with their qualifications and market competition.
• Implement a faculty development policy that rewards continuous self-development and provides incentives for increasing qualifications and expertise.
• Encourage faculty to devote time for student counseling and patronize student events and activities.

Issues in Faculty Development

• Faculty members of a university perform a role that is uniquely different from an office employee. An office desk worker is often expected to move the files from the in-tray to the out-tray. There is an often-unpredictable stream of files coming in the in-tray of the office desk that need to be processed quickly. The time spent by the office worker on his desk determines the number of files processed from the in-tray to the out-tray and hence his output. To ensure the maximum output of the office worker, the time that he spends which is his input is very closely monitored and is ensured to be greater than the minimum office timings.
• Unlike an office worker, a faculty member’s output is not determined by the time that he spends on his office desk. There is no in-tray and out-tray on his desk. Neither there is an unpredictable stream of files coming on his desk whose processing will depend upon the time that he is on his desk. Hence it is not the input of the faculty that is monitored but his output.
• faculty’s teaching output is determined well-in advance. The number of class sessions to be taught, the amount of preparation required for each class session, the number of monthly exams, number of quizzes, number of assignments, number of projects are all well-known. As the time required for each of these activities can also be estimated accurately, highly competitive universities in USA and elsewhere do not rely upon the input time of the faculty but instead rely on their output. In fact, faculty’s output measurement is more closely calibrated and monitored than any other type of employees. This is even true at this institute where the output of the teaching activities of the faculty is more closely monitored and calibrated than any other type of employee.
• The role of university faculty is even different in many respects from that of the teachers at school or college levels. Faculty of higher education institutions is additionally responsible for generation of new ideas, research and development, and creation of knowledge. They are also expected to actively take part in consultancy assignments and interact with the industry to understand the current problems and issues and tailor his curriculum accordingly. Furthermore, they are expected to develop and update the course outlines regularly based on this input from the industry and R&D.
• A faculty member is not only expected to teach what he knows, but is also expected to learn what he does not know and satisfy the students. Lecture organization and preparation is much more of a conceptual activity than a desk activity. When the faculty member is reading a journal at home or working for some advanced degree in the evenings, or participating in seminars and interacting with the industry, he is enriching himself professionally. Time that he spends in professional activities event outside the university is the input that contributes to his development and adds to his quality of teaching.
• A faculty member’s R&D work is creative and innovative. His mind is active and grappling with the issues raised in the class and problems posed by the students even when he is not in campus. Often solution to many such problems and issues come as a subconscious mental activity at night and away from the office. Creativity and generation of ideas typically can not be tied to the time spent on the office desk.
• Educational institutions provide teaching and research services. Faculty members are the most important link in the delivery of this service. Strength of an educational institution is determined by the quality and commitment of its faculty members. With de-motivated and disgruntled faculty, classes can be taught but learning cannot be developed. A learning environment requires positive relationships between the students, faculty and administration. The challenge of academics is to develop a mutually rewarding relationship among this triad.
• Managing highly qualified faculty members is a difficult task. The more one tries to regiment them and puts them in a straightjacket the more they loose their creativity and knowledge contributions.
• If a faculty member is kept idle or involved in non-stimulating work, he becomes bored and tries to get involved in activities detrimental to the institution. Example of government universities where faculty is not motivated properly and is not involved in constructive work has produced a culture replete with politics and intrigues.
• To overcome the problem of faculty politics, many institutions in the private sector have started over relying on visiting faculty. Visiting faculty is also often called brief-case professors. They often come to the institute with their brief-cases about 10 minutes before the class and are out of the institute 10 minutes after the class.
• There is no contribution by such faculty members in the development of the institution, development of the curriculum, student counseling, development of teaching methodology and processes and development of other faculty and research activities.
• The cost of such brief-case professors is also much higher than the contract/permanent faculty members who are full-time.
• Their commitment and devotion to the institute is also transitory and cannot be relied upon in the institutions’ long-term plans.
• Institutes in private sector relying on briefcase professors have failed to demonstrate significant contribution to the higher education, research and development. They have also failed to develop competitive advantage over other such institutes, as there is no difference in their teaching standard because they are relying on the same set of brief case professors. Institutes like LUMS that have successfully employed full-time faculty and rely on brief-case professors to the minimum have quickly gone ahead of much more established competitors like IBA that have continued to rely on brief case professors.
• Faculty management relies more on motivation and less on rigid rules. Given the right environment and motivation, a faculty member would put in many more hours than the stipulated time. The challenge is to provide such an environment and motivational framework. This is the challenge faced by the academic departments. Instead of administrators, it is the academicians who understand motivations of highly qualified faculty better and are more likely to contribute to the development of this environment.
• As the example of premier institutions such as LUMS in Pakistan and universities of USA show, the faculty member often sit late at nights working on R&D projects and consultancy assignments. The amount of time that they spent working for the institution often approaches 10-16 hours per day. Motivation for this commitment and this amount of input comes not through strict attendance rules like card-in and card-out system used for factory labor, but through incentive systems that encourage faculty teaching and R&D output.
• This document describes the positive reinforcement and motivational frameworks for faculty development and retention policy. It proposes the foundational principles on which faculty management would be done at the Institute.

Process

• Ensuring adequate faculty contribution to the development of the courses, curriculum of degree programs and the departmental initiatives.
• This requires a highly motivated faculty that gives its best in continual improvements in quality of instruction. The trade-off is between externally disciplined and self-disciplined behavior.
• Industry-academia interactions are necessary for developing a job-oriented curricula and producing graduates that are in high demand by the market.
• Excellence in curricular and extra-curricular activities
• Students need to be happy with the teaching
• This requires regular and measured dozes of instruction with frequent assessments, fair results and prompt feedback.
• The system should facilitate administration, monitoring and control of the above objectives with full understanding of the costs and benefits of the implementation.
• Encouraging the faculty to be actively involved in their personal and professional development through self-learning in a conducive environment.
• Faculty objectives
• Professional development and career growth
• Environment for consultancy assignments and interactions with the industry
• Incentives for research and development.
• Provide institutional incentives for faculty research and development.
• Create a win-win situation for the institute and the faculty
• Align faculty objectives with the institutional objectives
• Ensure motivation of faculty through steps like faculty training, scholarship programs, and involvement in R&D related projects, and financial perks.
• Personal improvement motivation
• Increments on a fixed number of papers published for a fixed period.
• Career growth path
• Reward plans for those who take initiative in curricular as well as extra curricular activities in the form financial non-financial awards.

Institutional incentives

• Representing Institute at Conferences and Seminars bringing recognition and goodwill in the corporate sector.
• Research publications in refereed journals. Developing state of the art knowledge
• Publication of books and case studies
• Research grants for faculty initiatives in R&D

Expectations from Faculty

• Ensure that faculty gives sufficient time for meeting the teaching requirements
• Facilitate administration of faculty affairs
• Faculty shall be provided a day extra per week that can be better utilized into self-learning and development activities. A relaxed mind can better attribute to the impartment of quality education and training services.
• Faculty will have further time to equip themselves with the knowledge of latest technology and recent developments in the modern world.
• Attainment of personal growth through self-learning and bearing up to date knowledge of latest technology and technological advancements shall play a major role in acquiring top motivation of faculty for the Institute.
• Institutional incentives ??
• The desired step shall provide the faculty with a good chance to improve their performance especially in the area of Industrial Consultancy. The step shall surely bring good repute and high level of recognition for the Institute.

Excellence in R&D

• The Institute should become famous for its research
• The Institute needs to be recognized as a university level institute that provides research-oriented and job-oriented education.
• This requires a strong R&D orientation in the faculty demonstrated by their research publications and contributions.

Excellence in Teaching Standards

Excellence of Faculty

• The Institute should be famous for its faculty and teaching standards
• The Institute should be reputed for its quality of faculty and quality of instruction.
• This requires a highly motivated faculty that gives its best in continual improvements in quality of instruction. The trade-off is between externally disciplined and self-disciplined behavior.
• This also requires a highly qualified faculty

Excellence in Meeting Job Market Requirements

• Institute should provide job-oriented education
• Industry-academia interactions are necessary for developing a job-oriented curricula and producing graduates that are in high demand by the market.

Excellence in Students Development

• Excellence in curricular and extra-curricular activities
• Students need to be happy with the teaching
• This requires regular and measured dozes of instruction with frequent assessments, fair results and prompt feedback.

Excellence in Administration

• Punctuality of students and strict enforcement of the attendance rule leading to there failing the courses.
• Punctuality of faculty and administration of absences and late coming with implications on their incentives and future growth.
• The system should facilitate administration, monitoring and control of the above objectives with full understanding of the costs and benefits of the implementation.

Faculty objectives

• Professional development and career growth: 
• Can be accomplished through involvement of faculty in R&D related activities.
• Environment for consultancy assignments and interactions with the industry: This can be acquired through strong corporate relationship and provision of best quality product to the market both in the form of students and projects.
• Incentives for research and development : Perks provision and recognition through research work publishing in journals and magazines of international stature.

Faculty Development

Win-win situation

How to align faculty objectives with the institutional objectives
Ensure motivation of faculty through steps like faculty training, scholarship programs, involvement in R&D related projects, and financial perks.
Measures

Personal improvement motivation

Perks

Increments on a fixed number of papers published for a fixed period.
Competitive environment

Environment congenial to learning with a positive mood of competition always inspires learning behavior.
Career growth path

Advancement in career can be ascertained through technological growth and better learning opportunities.
Initiative rewarding

Reward plans for those who take initiative in curricular as well as extra curricular activities in the form financial non-financial awards.

Institutional incentives

Representing Institute at Conferences and Seminars

The activity shall bring high recognition and goodwill in the corporate sector.
Research publications in refereed journals

Would help a great deal in bringing the faculty upfront in the hub of recent advancements.
Publication of books and case studies

Similar kind of objectives shall be achieved as mentioned above.
Research grants

Would ensure inclination of faculty towards R&D oriented activities.
Higher studies

This would further enhance the teaching grounds of the faculty.
Industry consultancy
Consultancy shares

Consultancy shares will induce a sense of belonging and ownership with the Institute and would supplement the Institutional and faculty objectives.

Measuring Faculty Output and Work Products

Weekly
Preparation

An average preparation time for each course per faculty is assumed to be one hour that is subjected to the nature of the course, experience of the faculty in that particular course, number of other courses taught during the same semester.
Class contact hours

Are set to be two hours per week per class.
Counseling
Weekly assessments
Around Hourlies
Prep
Checking
Around Term-end
Outlines
Prep
Checking
Faculty Timings and Schedule
30 hrs/week at office and 10hrs/week prep time
Academic administration and Implementation
Faculty Incentives System
Increments
Research
Designations: Prof , lecturer
Consultancy
Recommendations

Steps must be undertaken for improving motivation amongst faculty that would be the key in acquiring Institutional goals.