Replies to This Forum

Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on May 14, 2012 at 18:47

Dear Dr. Upadhyay;

Thanks for your post. As I presume, the UGC's effort was to ensure certain uniform standard in academic area. Plainly, the degree of Ph.D does not always ensure any standard in our country.The issue is not limited to our profession only and I have enough documents to justify my comment.

The NET papers (Which  included questions of 20 marks and above for a single question) was a sincere effort to select academics of substance for the future. A person who is not capable of analyzing an issue and write extempore for 1000 words on a given topic is incapable of teaching as I understand. The objective type questions are simply just read-memorise-for-exam-and-vomit in the answer scripts. One can not judge academic excellence of a person through it.

Likewise and pretty unfortunately, in most cases the Ph.Ds in our country are simply Degrees JO  HASIL KARNA PARTA HAI for financial benefit in service or to become more precious in the field of matrimonial market. As you know a BETA or BETI or BAHU or DAMAD with Ph.D are precious for parents and il-laws alike in our country!!

Speaking of advanced countries, do you know that in our profession you have to sit in to qualifying tests in definite interval of time!!I experienced it myself.

Say you did your Masters in 1995 or Ph.D in 1999 and in India you can cruise smoothly in your service without doing much or even any  academic activities . But  In those countries your tenure is linked with your performance where academic activities are quite prominent. So please do not compare with advanced countries. Lastly, if you have any doubt or confusion about my comments on Indian Ph.Ds just make a survey among all the Ph.ds in say LIS Link and ask (1)how many papers they have published in (i) Established journals (ii) Conference Proceedings out of their Ph.D theses prior to 2011 and (2) ask all people with M.Lib. Sc. How many papers they have published in their lifetime?

I am confident you can not get altogether 100 people with 15 years+ experience who has 15+  publications in established journals or persons with 5+ years' experience with 10+ publications. I have stressed on publications as they are the yardsticks to individualize one's creative activities.

I am sorry for being too direct but since you have raised the issue of 'high quality teaching and research' I felt that the issue should be addressed in full.

Regards,

Siddhartha S. Ray

Calcutta

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Ashok Kumar Upadhyay on May 14, 2012 at 20:08

I believe NET was started at a time when there weren't so many private universities, and there was a dearth of PhDs for teaching positions. In that sense it served a purpose by creating a minimum bar for becoming a faculty. However, now that we have so many universities, who are churning out PhDs in thousands every year (Quality is still questionable), the relative worth of NET qualifiers will automatically come down. Given a choice a university/institute would hire a Phd, rather than NET, to improve branding.

(DR. ASHOK UPADHYAY)

GALGOTIAS UNIVERSITY

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Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on May 15, 2012 at 5:40

Thanks for your comments regarding the private Universities and their productivity. This is what I wanted to stress upon irrespective of private or govt. Universities. You can quite easily check this factor (of quality) by searching any bibliographical database. You will see that only a handful of Indian Universities are dominating there while there are quite a few hundreds of Universities in India. However, it is not always true that all private universities are alike. The BIT at Pilani or BIT Meshra,  are exceptionally good; and far far better than many government funded Universities

Standardization is a must in the present age of globalization. Many universities allow Indian languages (like Bengali, Hindi etc) for exam and answering of the questions. Persons getting out of such Universities even with higher degrees often do poor in international arena.  When we will be able to participate in the International arena equally with those of our co-professionals from advanced countries, then only we can confidently claim that we are in no way backward to them. That is why I stress upon Standardization. It becomes immaterial whether a person is a  Ph.D or not in case s/he has at least 10 papers in JASIS /J.Doc/Scientometrics.  Doing just a survey of a certain group of readers of an institution and getting a Ph.D. with theses titles like "Information seeking pattern.of..". is rather demeaning for the dignity of the Doctorate Degree.

Regards,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

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Permalink Reply by Ritesh Kumar Tiwari on May 15, 2012 at 22:12

Dear Mr. Ray,

I fully agree with you. NET gives a standard platform. PHD shows your specialization in a particular area only, but NET tests your strength over through out the syllabus. A lecturer or a professor should posses updated knowledge of all areas.

It is also a point that, only clearance of NET can not decide the quality of a teacher. It only shows the knowledge of an individual on his/her subject. His/her teaching ability is a different matter. It is rightly said "It is not necessary that a good student can become a good teacher".

In spite of above mentioned fact NET can play a better role in selecting a teacher than PHD. But it should not so necessary for the post of Librarian, it is more practical job and experience as well as the achievements with past jobs should be considered for selecting a Librarian.

It's my personal opinion, I know many of us would not be agreed with my view. 

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Permalink Reply by Biju Varghese on May 15, 2012 at 1:19

Hi,

I think NET must be one of the qualifying criteria for the selection of Teachers at the Universities and Colleges, and in the case of Assistant Librarians also. NET has a national standard and same criteria for all the candidates, but this is not happening is the case of Ph. D.  In the case of Ph. D each university has its own standard and criteria, it may vary from university to university.

I think NET must be there for the selection..

I cant say what is the quality uplift happened after the implementation of NET in higher education...

Any way Objective type NET exam also raise big big questions????

Regards,

Biju

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Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on May 15, 2012 at 6:48

Thanks Sri Biju Varghese for your reply and your perception on NET as it tries to ensure a national (uniform) standard throughout the country.It also creates confidence among individuals while Ph.Ds can not ensure standard and vis-a-vis confidence. Your perception about the Ph.Ds of various Universities is absolutely correct.

A few decades ago, the Associate ships from two specific institutions in North and South India were often rated highly for appointment in libraries in National Research laboratories in India because people believed that they have extremely high class faculty, infrastructure and students passing out of those institutions were exposed to most modern and updated education systems both theoretical and practical. That means their STANDARDS were quite high.

It is evident that employers actually need people of substance and I. am sorry to say that the Degree of Ph.D can not always ensure this. That is why a strainer (sieve) like NET is required to identify the capable from the incapable ones.

I fully agree with your concern and confusion about introduction of objective type questions in NET as i believe that the entire sanctity and novelty of NET will be compromised with this decision.

Regards,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

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Permalink Reply by Dr Prem on November 26, 2013 at 0:14

Dr. Upadhyay,

Thank you for the post. 

Dr Prem

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