Page 1 of 5
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 05
May 2019
Available online:https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 1044
An Inquiry On The Research-Awareness Of University
Teachers In India
Joseph Varghese Kureethara, Arun C. Antony
CHRIST (Deemed to be University)
Abstract
This is a study to check the awareness of university teachers in India on the some of the
terms, concepts, norms and regulations related to research. It is conducted among 39
participants from various parts of India from across 11 disciplines. The study shows that the
research awareness has to be improved among the university teachers. The study is done
on a 10 point scale.
Keywords: research, higher education, research-awareness
Introduction
Research is inseparable from the life of a university teacher. What differentiates the
teachers of higher education from that of school education is the explicit insistence of
the involvement of research in their official engagement. The interdependence of
research and teaching is a foundation stone of higher education (Ramsden, 2003).
In addition, colleges and universities benefit from increased name recognition and
prestige when faculty research becomes important in public debates (Misra &
Lundquist, 2016). To enhance the quality of higher education by the involvement of
people with research background every university teacher India is required to have
PhD for appointment from 2021. The purpose of this move is the establishment and
acceptance of the research–teaching blend in higher education. However, the
ecosystem of the higher education institutions must be transformed to welcome this
new-found enthusiasm of the higher education authorities in India. Studies suggest
that the research-teaching nexus (Griffiths, 2004) has huge impact if the environment
of the higher educational institutions is made ready.
Purpose of Study
Research is not just doing research alone. Any researcher must be aware of some of
the basic information associated with research in the local situation as well as the
global scenario. It is observed that teachers are unprepared for the changing
demands of higher education due to sheer ignorance. For example, many are
unaware about the UGC regulation about the insistence of PhD for fresh
appointments and promotions in higher education in India from 2021. Hence, various
norms and regulations including the insistence of PhD for fresh appointments and
promotions in higher education in India from 2021 must be known to the existing
teachers so that they can be prepared for the new change that is expected in the
higher education. Hence, we try to inquire the basic awareness of the teachers in the
Page 2 of 5
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 05
May 2019
Available online:https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 1045
higher education by checking with them their knowledge or information about some
of the basic terms associated with research in terms of the universally accepted
quality measures in research, fundamental notifications the higher authorities etc.
Research Problem Statement
Teachers of higher education in India lack awareness on terms, concepts, norms
and regulations related to research.
Methodology
The study is carried out during a workshop on research skills for the teachers in the
higher education. A questionnaire was prepared and sent to the participants online.
The questionnaire was prepared to gather certain demographic information of the
respondents and their awareness of the terms, concepts, norms and regulations
related to research relevant in the Indian and international higher education context.
Research Design
The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part has only demographic
questions. It tries to gather information from the respondents, viz., gender, level of
qualification, domain of research, the institutional affiliation, teaching experience and
research experience in number of years. The second part of the questionnaire
consists of ten questions from various aspects of the local and global terms,
concepts, norms and regulations related to research floated around higher
education. The questions are framed with the view to extract the proper awareness
of the teachers in and about the higher education. The ten questions in part 2 of the
questionnaire are presented in the form of a quiz. Each question is provided with
multiple answers with one or more right answers. Respondent is assigned one point
for giving all the right answers of one question and zero points otherwise.
Respondents are informed about the non-disclosure of the personal information and
non-identification of the respondent with the answers given.
The research-awareness is thus assessed in terms of the 10 point scale with the
following evaluation criteria.
Range Remark
0-3 Weak
4-5 Average
6-7 Strong
8-9 Very Strong
10 Excellent
Page 3 of 5
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 05
May 2019
Available online:https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 1046
Population
The population consists of both male and female faculty members from 18 higher
educational institutions from India. The number of respondents is limited to 39.
Gender Male Female
24 15
Educational Background PhD M. Phil PG
24 4 13
Experience <6 years 6 to 10 years >10 years
Teaching 17 6 16
Industry 28 4 7
More than 50% of the respondents are from the domain of Management science.
Further, it is observed that 61% of the respondents are women and an equal number
of respondents are with PhD. A vast experience in teaching is also noticed among
the respondents. See the above table for more details.
Domains
Management 20 Science 3
Social Science 5 Engineering 1
Commerce, Finance and Accounting 4 Mathematics 1
Computer science 1 History 1
Logistics and Procurement 1 Language 2
Data Collection Procedure
Data is collected with the help of Google Forms with the system configured to fetch
unique responses. Answers of the questions of part 2 are jumbled so that each
respondent gets answers differently. Respondents are given 30 minutes for
completing the response. All questions in part 1 and part 2 are made mandatory.
Respondents are sent the URL of the online from through SMS and WhatsApp
messages. Responses are collected in 20 minutes.
Results
The maximum point obtained is 5 out of 10 by 6 of the respondents. The median
score is 3 and mean is 3.03. The following table gives the distribution of the scores
of all the 39 respondents.
