Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Academic Rigour : What is it? How is it implemented across the world?

Academic Rigour : What is it? How is it implemented across the world?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigour

Interestingly,

1. Some University/Institutions give more importance to creativity, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity,_action,_service

2. Some to curricula, some to content,

3. Some to dexterity,

4. Some to depth of knowledge,

5. Some to contact sessions (lectures/ class room sessions),

6. Some to practical knowledge,

7. Some to integration of theory with knowledge,

8. Some to application of theory to every day life,

9. Some like UGC even gives importance to evaluation, system and monitoring methods, quality of teaching and learning:

http://www.ugc.ac.in/financialsupport/xiplan/womenstudies.pdf  especially page 15 and 16

10. Some give importance to combination or add some value to everything in these points by setting up a tone of we are building centers of excellence, and we have International Business is at focus, or Dentistry or Surgery or CFD or CRM or child education or ....to name a few.

11. Some give much importance to credits offered

12. Some give importance to creating leaders in their own domains, etc.

Thus, Academic Rigour becomes really worth studying.

13. In Gurukool system in past Vedic System, Teacher-Guru was watched and followed in daily life by the students/disciples. Some times even debated on certain issues like why this medicine is better on this disease and why not this....etc. However, Guru were open minded and self/continuous learners at that time. Some were even enlightened souls like Guru Yadnyawalkya/Yagyavalkya, Lord Buddha, Lord Shrikrishna, and others to name a few.

14. Some give importance to learning by doing,

15. Some give importance to, stay put and watch and learn, Ex. "Let him be here for at least one year, he'll automatically learn by helping seniors and asking and with his will of curiosity". Ex. In the Automobile/ Machine Shop, we learnt a lot from seniors over their during our First Year of Engineering. Apart from Practical Lab session, which we used to complete in an hour, we spent time of 2 to 3 hours and learnt how other practicals are performed, and one of the Lab attendant said these important words.

16. Some give importance to dealing with cases. Ex. Management, Medicines, Pharmaceuticals, Business, Law/Legal Studies, etc.

17. Some give importance to projects/thesis by research/ dissertations and the background studies with originality in it. They even check plagiarism in the contribution and even some may reject the thesis on the ground of lack of originality except for the references.

18. In some cases, theory is given more importance than practical knowledge because of their unique pedagogy, ex. BA/ B.Sc. Economics with Honours.

19. Some even give importance to how teacher is teaching and analyze the teacher’s teaching in-front of students and hence, faculty as well students have to remain on tows all the times

20. Some give importance to Teaching Core, domain cources, and specialised courses+ Lesson Plan + Research done in industry + Consultation + Contribution to the Institutions + Placement of students + Industry Collaborations + Projects Brought + Good Students Attracted in the School for admission, + Books Written + Research Paper Published + ....a typical Business School Approach ( that many of us might have faced till date, as it becomes more academic rigor for faculty than a student executive, as many a time students are also involved in it so that next generation also gets trained and....).

21. In Military Schools, apart from this your ability to defence or military domain/ punctuality/ discipline/ mannerisms/attendance/ physical fitness/ ...etc. are also counted.

22. Some give much importance to pedagogy that they have designed and to fundamentals, and

23. Some even do not compel students to attend classes, as students’ self study is their motto and they get that kind of brilliant students.

Thus, “You name it and you have it in the Academic Rigor” is what I always say to students, when I told them, “You’ll be getting same MBA degree what even HBS students get, hence, you’ve to differ yourself and compete with them as well”.

To Engineering Students, I say, “You’ll be getting degrees similar to MIT’ens get .....”

24. I’m proud to tell you that recently I was given highest marks when I implemented academic rigor with 96.1% success over the scale of 100. It’s the highest in its class.

25. In the distance learning sometimes even the number of assignments submitted is also important.


26. In the 360 learning, online learning and teaching is there, and quizzes, online exams, timely/ with deadline submission of assignments, plays a vital role.

 


Article on Academic Standards:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_standards

AMAZINGLY IT HAS ARCHIVE OF Albert Einstein's Diploma as well, hat's off to Wikipedia.



Some articles:

http://goelsan.wordpress.com/2010/11/25/academic-rigour-in-indian-higher-education/


Some other stuff for reference on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curriculum

Even University and Colleges have this domain while they are ranked across the world:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_ranking





coming more.
ashish.urkude@gmail.com
Dr. Ashish Manohar Urkude

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