This year may see a sea change in academics at OU

This year may see a sea change in academics at Osmania University with the administration planning to make it mandatory for teachers to submit periodic reports on their academic activities, including what they teach in the classrooms and how they evaluate students.

Teachers will be asked to prepare notes to pass it on to students in the classrooms for every period and those accumulated reports will have to be submitted monthly or bi-monthly to the administration. “This will not only instil accountability among teachers but also build a repository of notes on various topics and subjects that can be used for future reference by the teachers and students,” a senior academic said.

Confirming that such a plan is in place, OU Vice-Chancellor S. Ramchandram said the documentation is a must to enhance their own image apart from that of the university, and such practices will also be linked to career advancement. The Vice-Chancellor said there is a need for academic audit of teachers to get rid of the negative image being portrayed of varsities.

The teachers should also be asked to give a document to students at the start of the semester to plan what they intend to cover during that period. This will also help the administration to check the progress periodically and also plug deficiencies, if any.“This will improve academic culture among the students,” a senior teacher involved in the process said.The University is worried that after completing 100 years of its existence, not many best practices have been adopted, particularly to meet the challenges of the new era introducing innovative teaching-learning methods.

It would be all the more important given the background of students joining the university now, a majority of whom are from socially and economically backward sections and rural areas. “They need to compete with students in top private institutions and it is our responsibility to shape them accordingly,” the Vice-Chancellor said.