NAAC Report

196 Pages·2014·1.3 MB·English

AUD Self-Study Report 2014
Volume I
for NAAC
Ambedkar University Delhi
Lothian Road, Kashmere Gate, Delhi 110006

Contents
Preface i
Preparation of the SSR ii
List of Steering Committee Members iii
List of Abbreviations iv
Glossary vi
Executive Summary vii
Profi le of the University 1
Criterion I: Curricular Aspects 11
Criterion II: Teaching-Learning and Evaluation 25
Criterion III: Research, Consultancy and Extension 47
Criterion IV: Infrastructure and Learning Resources 83
Criterion V: Student Support and Progression 101
Criterion VI: Governance, Leadership and Management 133
Criterion VII: Innovations and Best Practices 157
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Preface
Establishing a new university is not an opportunity most people get. Those of us who constitute the
AUD community during these initial years of its life are deeply privileged to have had this rare once-
in-a-lifetime opportunity, which we have used to the extent our capabilities allow, to dare to come up
with some unconventional imaginings about the contours of a new institution of higher learning and
research dedicated exclusively to the social sciences and humanities. We have been deeply conscious
of the need to demonstrate that it is possible for a public university, particularly a state university, to
bridge concerns of equity and social justice with quality and excellence, economic growth with social
transformation, market demands with social needs.
We have tried to interpret the nature, scope and applications of the social sciences and humanities in
a manner that highlights the interstices between traditional disciplines, while not losing sight of the
new interpretations that are possible within the core disciplines themselves. In doing this, we have
thought up new typologies of Schools and programmes of studies, we have made some bold departures
from conventional structures of knowledge and have tried to push the envelope as regards pedagogic
and student support practices. In training professionals in certain areas of practice, we have even
attempted to transcend the limits set by epistemological conventions governing traditional universities
by privileging wisdom emanating from praxis alongside high-church knowledge systems.
That said, AUD still remains largely a bundle of nascent possibilities waiting to unfold fully, although
the past fi ve years’ accomplishments indicate that some of these possibilities show defi nite signs of
being realised substantially, if not in full measure.
We had gone through peer review earlier as well. The Mid-Term Review that our Board of Management
instituted when AUD completed three years of its existence enabled a team of critical friends of the
University to review our structures and programmes. Their report validated the broad directions of
institution building that we had begun pursuing and suggested some important mid-course corrections.
We are hopeful that the accreditation and assessment process of NAAC would enable us to put in place
an effective and sustainable quality assurance system in the University.
Preparing this Self-Study Report has been an extremely useful learning experience for the entire AUD
community. The highly participative collective refl ections and intense deliberations that went into
the preparation of this report provided all of us with a coherent perspective in which to view our
University’s mission and our efforts towards fulfi lling it. A team of faculty and staff volunteered to
be on the Steering Committee and lead this exercise. They pursued their task painstakingly these past
three months, and this report is the fruition of their collective effort. The entire AUD community joins
me in placing our deep sense of appreciation for the most onerous and creditable work that this team
has done. We are particularly grateful to Dr Praveen Singh, the Convener of the Committee, for his
dedicated, sustained and good-humoured leadership.
Shyam Menon
Vice Chancellor
19 March 2014
AUD Self-Study Report, 2014 - Volume I i
Preparation of the SSR
A new university nurturing exciting ideas and a very young faculty with unbounded energies need not
only time to think and deliberate on their journey but also constant reassurance. In the hustle-bustle
of University life such deliberations are diffi cult to sustain. Nonetheless, the AUD community from
its initial years has been organising at least one refl ection session / retreat each semester to discuss
important matters, some of them specifi c to questions of interdisciplinarity, continuous assessment
and evaluation, students’ vulnerabilities, future plans, concurrent appointments, accountability and
autonomy. We found, in the process of preparing this Self-Study Report (SSR) for NAAC accreditation,
another opportunity to step back and examine carefully our day-to-day practices and revisit the vision
and mission of AUD.
The exercise, the way it was undertaken, was enormous and the Steering Committee needed to plan
the structure for collecting information and gathering opinions from all the primary stakeholders of
the University. All this required an iterative process at all levels. It required a core team to put together
these deliberations in the format provided by NAAC. Rather than choosing a team, we asked for
volunteers, and to our surprise, got an enthusiastic response from many. The team, consisting of at least
one member from each School, prepared a questionnaire that was then sent to the Schools, programme
teams and Centres for their response. Each unit then organised workshops to discuss and prepare
their responses to the questionnaire and also to compile the Evaluative Reports. A member of the core
team attended these School-level workshops. Once the responses were received, the core team sat
for a week during the winter break to prepare the fi rst draft of the SSR, which was again shared with
a larger group for inputs and comments. The fi nal draft was prepared in a workshop attended by the
members of the core team and all Deans and Directors. The three months that the team took to fi nalise
the report was more than anyone had anticipated, but it allowed us to create conditions that facilitated
the participation of many members from the AUD community. The enthusiasm of the young members
of the core team has created a ripple effect among all programme teams.
I would like to commend and thank the members of the core team for their hard work, sincerity and
enthusiasm in completing this task. We only hope that this process does not end here. We realise
that we have just begun and there are many things still to be done in addition to consolidating the
beginnings we have made. We have also discovered through this process the blueprint for the future
work of an IQAC as well as the colleagues who would like to be part of it.
We would like to thank our colleagues from different Schools and Centres for the effort they have
put in. All the Deans and Directors spent a lot of time giving their inputs in workshops. A number of
other colleagues have pitched in with their support on several occasions. We would like to mention,
in particular, Vikas Dalal, Usha Mudiganti, Amit Singh, Vikram Singh Thakur and Sanju Thomas for
their contribution in proofreading and editing the document. This report could not have been prepared
on time without the unstinting effort of Abeer Gupta who formatted the report in record time.
A special mention should be made of Professor Shyam Menon, Professor Vijaya Varma and Professor
Kuriakose Mamkoottam for the encouragement and support they provided and the confi dence they
showed in the Steering Committee.
Praveen Singh
Convener, Steering Committee
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List of Steering Committee Members
1. Sayandeb Chaudhary (SLS)
2. Sumangala Damodaran (SDS)
3. Ashish Das (SLS)
4. Abeer Gupta (SDes)
5. Nidhi Kaicker (SBPPSE)
6. Mamatha Karollil (SHS)
7. Tanuja Kothiyal (SLS)
8. Rajan Krishnan (SCCE)
9. Venugopal Maddipati (SDes)
10. Bindu Nair (Student Services)
11. Manasi Thapliyal Navani (SES)
12. Anshumita Pandey (SHS)
13. Deepti Sachdeva (SHS)
14. Santhosh Sadanandan (SCCE)
15. Rukmini Sen (SLS)
AUD Self-Study Report, 2014 - Volume I iii
List of Abbreviations
AC Academic Council
ACC Academic Coordination Committee
ACIP Advisory Committee for International Partnerships
ACRPM Advisory Committee for Research and Project Management
AML Ambedkar Memorial Lecture
AS Academic Services
AUD Ambedkar University Delhi
BoM Board of Management
BoS Board of Studies
BRST Basic Research Skills Training
CAC Central Admission Committee
CCK Centre for Community Knowledge
CDP Centre for Development Practice
CECED Centre for Early Childhood Education and Development
CMT Core Management Team
CPCR Centre for Psychotherapy and Clinical Research
CSSRM Centre for Social Science Research Methods
ERP system Enterprise Resource Planning system
FAUD Friends of Ambedkar University Delhi
FC Finance Committee
GIC Gender Issues Committee
IGDTUW Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women
IC Incubation Centre
IT Information Technology
MTR Mid-Term Review
pa per annum
PEC Programme Evaluation Committee
PG Postgraduate
PRADAN Professional Assistance for Development Action
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