Office of Dean, UGS

15.11.2011 Executive Committee of Senate in its 123rd meeting held on 27.07.2011 has approved a new scheme of advising undergraduate students. Details of the scheme is attached herewith. This scheme will be implemented from the second semester 2011-2012.

HoD's of all UG degree awarding Departments are requested to immediately nominate faculty members assigned to various Class Committees as per the new scheme as well as Special Advisors for students under academic probation so that the new scheme can be implemented effectively. The names of faculty members nominated for these tasks may be communicated to AR(UGS) latest by 5.12.2011.

Scheme for Academic Advising of UG Students

A. Advising Scheme 1. There is a class committee for each entry year of the student of a programme, It is proposed that class committee be entrusted with the responsibility of providing academic advice to the students which is expected to be consistent and uniform for the entire batch. To meet this objective composition of class committee will be redefined. 2. Constitution of the class committee: Class committee will consist of a Chairman, at least two faculty members of the department (one of them will function as convenor of the class committee) and elected student representatives (as per AIC constitution) including a student coordinator. All coordinators of courses intended for the batch in the current semester and special advisors of academically weak students will be permanent invitee to the class committee. 3. Chairman, to be appointed by HOD, is expected to be a senior faculty of the department. Chairman will be associated with an entry year till the batch graduates. He will provide the basic guidance for formulating course plan and electives for the students. 4. The class committee will have at least two other departmental faculty as members. One of them will be the convenor of the class committee. Convenor will be appointed in year specific fashion - for example, the convenor of the second year class committee can continue in the same position for 3 years for three different entry years. He/she can contribute to the advising process by exploiting his/her experience about the possibilities and difficulties of a particular year/semester. 5. Students can approach any class committee member for academic advice before registration. In other words, all the three members of the class committee will have the functional role of providing academic advice to all the students. In case of any exception and relaxation in rules or regulations, the class committee convenor will approve and forward the request. Explicit approval of registration of students under normal conditions (without any exceptional request) will no longer be required.

6. The faculty members of the committee in consultation with the students will provide academic advice applicable to all the students in general. The class committee is also expected to discharge following responsibilities (i) Considering mid-semester feed-back about courses running in the current semester (ii) Identifying electives for the subsequent semester (iii) Addressing issues related to scheduling and categorisation of courses (iv) Organising STIC events for the batch. The class committee convenor with the support of student co-ordinator, will organise at least one STIC event in each semester for interaction between class committee members and all the students of the batch. During orientation students and their parents will meet class committee members. 7. Load of the class committee convenor should be considered as a departmental administrative load. 8. The course advisors will be now known as faculty mentors and provide guidance and advice as and when required. Faculty mentors in the revised system, will be assigned to the students in their first year and will have structured interactions with them.

B. Advising academically weak students

1. The students on probation in each batch will be put under a special advisor, identified by the department, who will be expected to monitor the students on probation in an intensive and personalised fashion. There should not be more than 5-8 students assigned to a special advisor depending upon departmental strength. HODs will appoint special advisors at the beginning of academic session. This will be considered as an administrative load. 2. There will be meeting of special advisors with Dean, UGS at the beginning of the semester for coordination of the advising process. 3. A student on probation will be put under care of the advisor for the entire period during which the student continues to remain in probation. Special advisors will also be invited to attend the class committee meeting.

4. Student advisor in consultation with the parents and student counsellor, if required, will make an academic plan in a student specific fashion (including academic help sessions). Special advisor is expected to Closely interact with the weak student and his/her parents Meet the student at regular intervals (once every 3 weeks)

Take personal interest in him Formulate individualised academic plan Manage and track counselling process of the student, if any In coordination with Head, Counselling Cell

Approve registration Permission to participate in extra-curricular activities Manage the recommendation/appeal for termination/continuation

process in consultation with HOD & Dean

4. Theadvisingprocessforweakstudents (i)Student meets his advisor at the beginning of the semester, if possible with parents To identify specific problems and ways to mitigate To formulate academic plan and target for the semester Meeting must take place within the add-drop period (ii) The student must meet the advisor at least once in 3 weeks Advisor monitors his performance and attendance of help sessions

5. The student being placed under probation for the first time may also meet the counsellor during this period, if needed. Counsellor can provide professional help in identifying problems. Counsellors input will be available to the course advisor. Two days during the add-drop period will be kept apart, ear-marked as counselling days. The student, (may be along with his/her parents) should come and meet Counsellor during this period. 6. While considering any appeal from an academically weak student for continuation of his registration following facts will be taken into account: (i) whether he/she has met his/her Advisor and Counsellor at scheduled times on a regular basis and (ii) whether he/she is regular in help sessions.

7. Registration of the student under probation will not be approved for the next semester if he does not comply with the process of meeting advisor and counsellor He/she will be required to withdraw the semester

C. Creation of an Eco-system

1. Student Mentor Each student under probation will be assigned a Student mentor from the same hostel preferably from the same discipline. The mentor will keep track of the academic and extra-curricular activities of the weak student and provide feed-back to the advisor and counsellor. UG teaching assistants can also mentor academically weak students 2. There should also be hostel level incentive for these student welfare activities in order to make the mentors take their assignments seriously. This may prompt other welfare measures be organised as part of student activity like sessions on communication skill, career counselling, etc. There will be points assigned to (i) overall academic performance in a hostel (ii) improvement in the performance of students on probation residing in the hostel. These points will be considered for deciding BSW trophy. 3. A student on probation will not be permitted to contest for any post in election. However, he will be permitted to participate in extra-curricular activities in a restricted fashion only on specific recommendation of his advisor communicated to the warden.

D. Monitoring Scheme An apex committee-Welfare Committee will be in place to monitor the entire operation of academic advising. The committee will have following members: 1. DD(F)-Chairman 2. Dean (UGS)- Alternate Chairman 3. Dean of Students 4. Head, Student Counselling Cell 5. SC/ST advisor 6. Chairman, Grades and Registration

7. Counsellor 8. Associate Dean, UGS Convenor

Functions of the Welfare committee will be the following Monitor Performance of weak students Final Recommendations regarding Termination Continuation First year repeat Slow-paced programme Review and assessment of overall functioning of the scheme

This apex committee will evaluate the student based on the feed-back regarding (i) regularity in meeting the advisor (ii) regularity in meeting the counsellor (iii) students attendance in help sessions and (iv) academic performance. A summary of the weak students performance will be available to the Class committee members, HoD of the students Department as well as Course Coordinators of the course in which the student is currently registered. The Advisor will provide a summary report at mid-semester as well as end-semester for consideration by the apex welfare committee. Web based processes will be designed to have integrated information presentation and communication for weak students.