A Member Resolution to be Presented at the IESL AGM 2017 to Establish an Academic Staff Recruitment Criteria to the IESL CoE

Minimum Qualifications Standard as Academic Staff Recruitment Criteria to the IESL College of Engineering

Introduction

The IESL College of Engineering (IESL CoE) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the IESL established under the Companies Act No 7 of 2007. Therefore, under the provisions of the said Act and the Articles of Association (AoA) of this private limited liability company, its governance is the sole responsibility of the duly appointed Board of Directors of IESL CoE. According to the AoA the company, the Board consists of the Officers of the Council of the IESL.

The IESL CoE established with a mission to "Achieve Enduring Excellence in Education and Research in Engineering" has among its vision to be the "Premier Higher Educational Institution in Engineering" that would be a "benchmark for Engineering Education", the "trend setter in the Engineering Education", and the "setter of Engineering Education Service Quality Standards." To achieve and maintain these high standards, the IESL CoE must have an academic staff with requisite qualifications, training and experience.

The University Grants Commission (UGC), which is the authority to manage the recruitment conditions and criteria for academic staff in the state university system, has established following as the required Postgraduate Degree for recruitment for the post of Lecturer (Probationary) and Senior Lecturer Grade II and Grade I for Faculties of Engineering (vide Commission Circular No. 11/2015).

1. A Doctoral Degree in the relevant field or
2. A Masters Degree in the relevant field with full time research of at least 24 months duration.

The required qualification for recruitment as a Lecturer (Temporary) is a B.Sc. Engineering degree with First class or Second class Upper honors. However, the post of Lecturer (Temporary) is to recruit new graduates of a university who are in the process of commencing their postgraduate study programs. Therefore, this recruitment category is not relevant to the IESL CoE.

Review of Academic Qualifications of the Full Time Academic Staff of the IESL CoE

Based on the data provided by IESL CoE on its permanent academic staff, as of May 2017, out of the 10 permanent academic staff members, 6 staff members have no prior teaching experience in a university/institution conducting an undergraduate study program.

Out of the 10 permanent academic staff members, 6 staff members does not posses the minimum academic qualification of a research masters to be appointed as a senior lecturer.

Out of the 10 permanent academic staff members, only 2 staff members satisfy the academic qualification for their designation and have prior experience in teaching at a university/institution conducting an undergraduate study program. Of these 2, one staff member is at IESL CoE on sabbatical.

Therefore, IESL CoE has only a single permanent academic staff member with prior experience and qualification satisfying the designation.

Thus, based on the information provided by the management of the IESL CoE, it is in serious deficit of a full-time academic staff necessary to properly conduct the undergraduate study programs it offers.

This situation has given rise to general membership to question the quality of the study program and the impact of conducting such a study program on the reputation of the IESL.

Review of Academic Qualifications of the Visiting Lecturers of the IESL CoE

The objective of using visiting academics in an institution of higher learning and specifically in an undergraduate program is to supplement teaching of course modules with highly qualified and experienced industry practitioners. This brings in a much needed industry/practitioner viewpoint to the learning experience of undergraduates.

Based on the data provided by IESL CoE on its visiting academic staff, as of May 2017, out of the 60 visiting lecturers, 12 (20%) have only a bachelors degree qualification but is used for the teaching of 13 course modules.

Most disturbingly for an institution of higher learning aspiring to be the trend setter in engineering education, these visiting lecturers of IESL CoE with only a basic degree qualification and without prior teaching experience at undergraduate level are used to teach 2 foundation courses (EE1002 and ME1006) and 9 advanced modules (EC5001, EC5006, ME5007, CE4002, CE4004, CE5006, CE5005, EC5004, and ME5005). From the remaining 2 modules, CE2006 is also an advanced module and only the module ET2006 taught by a senior engineer from Millennium Information Technologies could be considered as an acceptable visiting lecturer appointment.

Based on the data provided by IESL CoE, there are 6 (10%) visiting lecturers who have only a MBA postgraduate degree qualification beyond the fist degree or equivalent qualification.

Most alarmingly for an institution of higher learning aspiring to be the benchmark for engineering education, 3 of these visiting lecturers of IESL CoE are being used to teach engineering course modules at foundation level (CE1002) and at advanced level (ME5002 and EC5002). The 3 remaining visiting lecturers are being used in the teaching of management oriented course modules, which is acceptable.

Based on the data provided by IESL CoE, further 21 (35%) of the visiting lecturers have only taught masters (MSc and MEng) postgraduate qualifications beyond the first degree.

Based on the data provided by IESL CoE, the remaining 21 (35%) of the visiting lecturers have either MPhil or PhD qualifications justifying their role as contributors to the undergraduate academic program.

Therefore, it is important to note that nearly 2/3 of the visiting academic staff of IESL CoE does not successfully satisfy the required criteria as highly qualified and experienced industry practitioners who could be used to enhance the learning experience of undergraduates.

Furthermore, the ratio of 10 permanent academic staff to 60 visiting staff (1:6 ratio) is indicative of IESL CoE having a tutory-type teaching arrangement rather than a bona-fide institute of higher learning.

Requirement for a Minimum Qualifications Standard

The data provided by IESL CoE clearly indicate that the IESL CoE has over the period of its existence has failed to develop its institutional academic staff capacity leading to a continual dependency on a set of temporary visiting lecturers who are largely lacking in qualification and experience to conduct an undergraduate study program.

This situation has given rise to general membership to question the true intent of the operation of the IESL CoE. While posing as a not-for-profit private company conducting an undergraduate-level engineering study program, the IESL CoE pays significantly higher salaries to its top management in administrative and academic segments, provide bonuses and spends lavishly on advertising and promotion.