Faculty Orientation, Strategic Planning and NAAC Accreditation
Impact
Ninety percent of the faculty were actively involved in preparing the College’s National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) application. Despite the more stringent and objective third party evaluation, the college retained its A Grade into this third cycle.
Ninety-five percent of the projects identified at the Faculty Orientation and Strategic Planning (FOSP) workshop have been substantially completed with other “spin off” projects arising and implemented.
This project has helped build a more participative, empowered and facilitative college community culture, and has impacted the teaching approach.
The project involved most of the faculty and management and has impacted, directly and indirectly, the students at the Salesian College.
Context and challenges
Salesian College in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India has two campuses—Sonada (established in 1938 with 500 students) and Siliguri (established in 2009 with 1400 students). Salesian College is a Government recognized minority educational institution of the Catholic Church, run by Salesians of Don Bosco, Kolkata Province where over 1900 students do their regular B.A., B.Com & B.Sc studies under the North Bengal University.
The college had experienced both rapid growth and faculty turnover and the key challenge was addressing how to integrate the new faculty and prepare for the coming year.
Project objectives
The project had three objectives:
- Faculty orientation – it was important to create an opportunity for the current and new faculty to learn about each other and prepare for the upcoming year.
- Strategic planning – creating an opportunity for the faculty and management to think about where the college was going and what they would achieve in the coming years.
- Preparing for the NAAC accreditation process – accreditation is required every five years and the intention was to have active faculty involvement in the process.
Approach
The approach involved a three day facilitated workshop on Faculty Orientation and Strategic Planning (FOSP) held in August 2016 with the faculty and management of the Salesian College at the Sonada Campus. Subsequent follow up included review sessions held on October 2016, June 2018 and December 2018 at both campuses.
