Part II EVALUATIVE REPORT B.Criterion-wise Evaluative Report Thematically, this part is a sequel to Part I. This Evaluation Report for reaccreditation for the 5- year period (2003-04 to 2007-08) is prepared giving due consideration to the Vision, Mission and Value Framework of NAAC as well as of the Kannada University. Besides, importance is also accorded to the Peer Team’s Report on the Institutional Accreditation of Kannada University, Hampi for the 5-year period.1999-2000 to 2003-2004. The observations and suggestions made by the Peer Team have also influenced the intent and content of this report. With a view to making this report fully transparent and reliable, and closer to reality, every possible care is taken to see that it reflects the actual situation obtaining in the University. The possible impact on higher education of the unprecedented changes, challenges and opportunities that are being engendered by the ongoing mega process of globalization characterized by liberalization, marketization, privatization, and multinationalisation. Unlike conventional Universities in Karnataka, our University, in terms of its intent and content, and look and outlook, has certain distinct and unique aspects; we would like to prefix this Criterion-wise Evaluative Report with a short preface. Here we make reference to a few observations on the uniqueness of our University made by the Peer Team which evaluated our Evaluative Report for the period 1999- 2000 to 2003-2004 for the kind perusal of the Peer Team which is going to assess of SSR for reaccreditation. A few excerpts are given below: “We, as a Peer Team, face a peculiar kind of dilemma when we come to assess and accredit such a monolingual, regionally focused, and research-oriented university”. (See Page No. 153) “It has, we think, covered a lot, given the short time in which it had at its disposal. Here is an institution, then where the regular norms of NAAC evaluation cannot be applied mechanically, and have to be suitably adjusted to the distinctive nature of the institution. Keeping this in view, we proceed to make the following statements. ..” (See Page No. 153) “It is also noteworthy that some of the courses are job-oriented. The Peer Team, however, feels that demanding job-orientation from its curricular and research programmes will be an attempt to divert it from its original course, which is that of research and knowledge development” (See Page No. 157) “A University of this nature has only limited possibilities for activities like consultancy, extension services etc. All the same, the University has made some useful beginnings in these areas” (See Page No. 159) With the aforesaid background, the criterion-wise details are presented below:- 1 CRITERION – I CURRICULAR ASPECTS 1.1 Curricular Design and Development 1.1.1 State the vision and mission of the institution. Vision Statement. The vision of Kannada University has been articulated and rearticulated by its visionary Vice Chancellors right from its founder Vice Chancellor Dr. Chandrasekhar Kambar who could peep into emerging future based on their understanding of the past and present. Apart from moving consciously in the direction of achieving excellence – a moving variable in all its activities, the university has been aiming at creating, acquiring, and disseminating the socially useful knowledge, skills, and attitudes with a view to initiating and accelerating the forces and processes required for evolving a relatively just socio- economic, politico-cultural, and eco-environmental order in our geographically and demographically vast, socially plural, culturally diverse, hierarchical, inegalitarian, andro-centric society, economy and polity. Our vision is formulated in a multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary framework. To be brief our vision is: “To strive consciously and continuously to attain, augment, and sustain excellence in all our activities – in the classroom on the campus, and off the campus - and in that process to initiate and accelerate the forces and processes required for evolving a just socio-economic, politico-cultural and eco-environmental order in which people - all people – matter most, with special focus on the lives of the people inhabiting the Hyderabad - Karnataka region – the least developed and the most backward region in the state in which the University is located. With a view to reaching people outside Karnataka, of late, while according primacy to Kannada and the culture that goes with it, efforts are being made to transcend the limitations of the University’s mono-lingual character”. Mission Statements Our mission statements refer to the objectively defined and operationally useful means / processes / strategies through which the university seeks to realize the long run goals inherent in its vision. 1. Providing adequate infrastructural facilities – physical, human, and eco environmental – and creating an environment which is conducive for their optimal use. 2. Making quality, efficiency, and effectiveness the defining elements in all its activities - teaching, learning, research, extension, consultancy, collaboration and so on. 3. Re-engineering our approaches to classroom and off the classroom practices from time to time with a view to enabling the teacher researchers and student learners to manage the changes and challenges, and to avail the opportunities that are being engendered by the ongoing mega process of globalization. The intention of re-engineering is to keep ourselves contextually relevant in the continuously changing socio-economic, politico-cultural and eco-environmental environment. 2 4. Encouraging the faculty members and providing facilities for conducting their teaching and research activities in a multi-disciplinary and participatory framework aiming at the holistic progression of all the stakeholders in this backward region and beyond it in the state and the nation. 5. Undertaking gender-generation sensitive action research - diagnostic, prescriptive, and prognostic – in which the University’s researchers and the researched work together so that the findings would be of use to the government in policy formulation, policy correction, and remedial action. 6. Adopting total quality management technique to attain, augment and sustain excellence in all that the University does. The researchers make ambi-dexterous innovations with a view to making their work relevant across periods and regions. 7. Within the broad framework of the vision, mission, short run and long run objectives of the University, the teacher-researchers working in all the departments and recognized centres are allowed autonomy and flexibility. 8. “That which can be measured alone can be managed”. Giving due weightage to this management dictum, the work of the teachers, researchers, and research students is subjected to periodical evaluation - internal as well as external – to attain and sustain excellence. 1.1.2 What are the major considerations addressed by the goals and objectives of the institution? (Intellectual, Academic, Training, Access to the Disadvantaged, Equity, Self development, Community & National Development, Ecology and environment, Value orientation, Employment, ICT introduction, Global demands, etc.) The University has a consciously created institutional arrangement to manage the task of designing and redesigning the curricula, courses, programmes and research in such a way as to address the major considerations implicit in the goals and objectives of University. Intellectual An enabling environment is provided for the faculty and students to hone-up their knowledge, skills and attitudes. Since they have autonomy, flexibility and freedom to carry on innovations in their respective fields, intellectual growth has become natural and spontaneous. Such growth is being manifested in the campus and campus activities – research methodology workshops, action research, conscientization programmes for gender empowerment, various publications etc. Our intellectual growth, to a great extent, is facilitated by Eerich Fromm’s learning through reflective consciousness and Paulo Freire’s dialogicity (the essence of education as freedom in practice). The faculty of all the departments believes in the ability of dialogue and participation in attaining excellence in everything they do. Academic In all the university has three faculties viz the Faculty of Language and Literature, the Faculty of Social Science and the Faculty of Fine Arts, 18 departments and 12 recognised centres of research to achieve and sustain excellence in academic matters. Teaching and research go hand in hand. Apart from M.A.Ph.D integrated programme, the University has been offering courses leading to M.Phil, Ph.D and D.Litt. Our academic activities are, by and large, research oriented. Training and Self-development The university has recognized the necessity of training its teacher- researchers with a view to enabling them to cope with the changes and challenges that are being engendered by the ongoing mega 3 process of globalization. Training and retraining become necessary when the competencies of the faculty fall short of the competencies required for performing the tasks for which they are appointed; the competency-gap ought to be bridged by well-designed training programmes. The university makes the needs assessment – training needs of the facility informally and formally. Informal assessment is made by the respective faculty deans and heads of the departments. And formal assessment emerges out of the periodical