SWOC

SWOC – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Challenges

STRENGTHS

The S.P.C. Government College, Ajmer is one of the oldest leading institutions of Rajasthan having immense potential for teaching, learning and research.

  • ❖  Experienced, dedicated faculty, recruited by State Public Service Commission, as per UGC norms.

    • ➢  There are two Postdocs in the institution (One D.Sc. and one PDF)

    • ➢  134 faculty with Ph.D. as the highest degree.

    • ➢  65 registered Research supervisors

    • ➢  Research publications in UGC, web of Science and scopus approved

      journals.

    • ➢ 5 patents awarded to faculty members.

  • ❖  Being one of the most prestigious multi faculty Institute of the affiliating Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University, the institute has ample representation in various Boards of Studies and Academic Councils. The faculty members render their service as Convener or members of the Boards of Studies thus serving as a channel to review, revise and improve syllabi as per the need of the fast evolving times.

  • ❖  Adequate eco-friendly physical infrastructure in the institution to nurture scholarly pursuits of around 8000 students a considerable number of whom are from rural background of Ajmer and other neighbouring districts.

  • ❖  Systematised accompaniment of mentoring and counselling by competent faculty to facilitate active participation and inculcate a value system among the students.

  • ❖  Round the clock CCTV surveillance of the campus premises.

  • ❖  Efforts on institutional and personal level to reduce the ‘Carbon-footprint’ by

    incorporating contemporary technology based lights, gadgets etc. along with the

    traditional eco-friendly measures.

  • ❖  Various institutional practices reflect the policy of decentralisation and participative management prevalent in the Institute.

  • ❖  Involvement of the faculty in college for executing student and institute related activities through various committees.

  • ❖  State-of-the-art facilities for teaching, learning, research, sports, students, recreation, hostel, etc.

  • ❖  Technology enabled campus with 24 X 7 Wi-Fi and internet facilities for the staff and students.

  • ❖  Availability and regular usage of contemporary ICT to enhance teaching learning experience in the institution.

  • ❖  LAN connections are available on the campus for the access of students and teachers for academic activities.

  • ❖  Extensive incorporation of e-governance to promote less-paper and paperless systems in the institution.

  • ❖  Enough provision of Student-centric, experiential learning by adopting relevant pedagogies, field surveys, educational tours, etc.

  • ❖  An atmosphere for holistic development of the student by maintaining a balance between curricular, co curricular and extra curricular activities. This is quite evident by the participation and awards won by the students at national and state level.

  • ❖  Well organised smooth system for facilitating the apportionment of various State and Central Government Scholarships to the rightful beneficiaries.

❖ The availability of more than 1.70 lacs books and facility

to e-books, periodicals, e- journals and e-resources along with OPAC

system in the central library and the contributory libraries in various

departments

are considered to be the major strength of the institution.

❖  Pre-exposure of the students to various skills and imminent first-hand experience by

means of various skill development programs.

❖  Availability of advanced research laboratories equipped with sophisticated and

high precision instruments, in some of the departments..

❖  More than 278 research scholars pursuing research for the award of Ph.D. in the

institution indicates a healthy environment for research endeavors.

❖  AvailabilityofauditoriumsandseminarhallsequippedwithICTforin-houseand

online activities for faculty and students.

❖  Organization of national conferences and workshops webinars and Faculty

Development Programs mirrors the intent of academic progression of the

intelligentsia of the institute

❖  Ademocraticallyelectedstudentsbody‘TheStudents’Union’tobestrepresentthe

aspirations of the students, on various platforms

❖  Availability of platforms to take part in various government led community service

activities & programmes, with the aim is to provide hands-on experience to young students in delivering community service. The institute is committed to its social responsibility by organising blood donation camps and adopting a few villages for hygiene awareness and promoting vigilance for various social-schemes promulgated by the Government, through NSS Camps, NCC drives etc.

❖  ThetwoGirls’Hostelswiththecapacityof200beds,inthecampus,providesafe, well equipped residential facilities for the female scholars coming from remote villages and other cities.

❖  Regular involvement of Alumni and other stakeholders who provide constructive suggestions for the infrastructural development, improvement in the teaching learning environment, the library facilities, games and sports facilities, strengthening of industry institution relationship etc.of having open access

 

 

WEAKNESSES

Despite the abundance of strength in the institution,there are a few avenues of inability to match up with the dynamic situation and rapid change. Technological backwardness, inadequate systems or processes, slow deliveries, or shortage of resources are the major ‘hiccups’ .

The institute has some weakness on the part of implementation of plans, delay in decision making, maintenance and repair of the building, maintenance of the instruments and equipment, upgrading and revision of syllabus according to the job profiles of the economy etc. But all these weaknesses of the institution are basically due to the delay in approval, sanctioning and allocation of funds at the state administration and university level. Following is the enumeration of the key avenues that need to be catered to:

●  Lack of autonomy

●  Introduction of vocational courses and professional courses.

  Frequent deputations and transfers of the faculties to the other institutions.

●  Short tenure and frequent change of the Head of the Institution.

●  Technological backwardness: Modification and up-gradation of all classrooms into

smart-class in proportion with the multifarious faculty, students and the programmes.

●  Non availability of technical support staff to handle or maintain the playgrounds,

gymnasium machines and apparatus, maintenance of the laboratories instruments of

different departments, computer labs and computer attached machines.

●  Lack of Financial Resources – Reductions in state funding; the necessity to update

programs and services; and rising fixed costs contribute to the lack of available

financial resources.

●  The potential talent of research is not adequately nurtured due to the procedural

delay by the affiliating University and the government policies regarding fund

allocation.

●  M.Phil and Ph.D Entrance Examinations are not held regularly by the University. This

has been the primary reason for discontinuance of M.Phil classes in the institute

since 2012

●  The time devoted by the Research Supervisors is not reflected in their workloads

because no such workload is considered by state government

●  Lack of systemic mechanism for monitoring student progression

●  Limited industry collaboration

●  Paucity of consultancy and exchange programs

●  Insufficient incubation and startups

  • OPPORTUNITIES

    The ability to profit by higher education is spread among all classes of people. There are great reserves of untapped ability in society. Being a government institute providing education at affordable -cost, with proficiency, we have an opportunity for working up on novice scholars who are out in the world with an aim to get educated. The envisioned opportunities for the institute includes:

    The ability to profit by higher education is spread among all classes of people. There are great reserves of untapped ability in society. Being a government institute providing education at affordable -cost,with proficiency, we have an opportunity for working up on novice scholars who are out in the world with an aim to get educated. The envisioned opportunities for the institute includes:

    ●  Strengthening the two way connection between the institution and the community for making the education more comprehensive and all-encompassing.

    ●  Exposing the students to online distance learning and access to online content.

     

    CHALLENGES

    • ●  Making available open learning resources, curated content available online in the

      form of links and more of good quality content continuously uploaded on various channels. content in local languages is the need of the hour to initialise online learning efforts i.e., ‘talk-type’ content availability and credit extended for its usage.

    • ●  Inculcating group coherence, facilitating more emphasis on productive aspects of Curriculum via experience learning and understanding the opportunities

    • ●  Setting up a learning path leading to employability and Industry connect by making use of the forums for experiential learning.

    • ●  Empowering the scholars with employability skills i.e., developing soft skills like proficiency in language, computing, analytical capabilities comprehension etc. thus staging entry points for collaboration in enterprise education and entrepreneurship and links with industry

    • ●  Facilitating quality research by grooming the Scholars to get through various competitive exams including the CSIR NET GATE etc. and procure funds and grants for the research work.

    • ●  Supporting market oriented research that paves way for more patents.

    • ●  Building stronger relationships and increasing mutual understanding in higher

      education by increasing support and participation in platforms (conferences, workshops, seminars) which enable debate and dialogue with other countries of the world.

    • ●  Conjunction with the alumni to tap the unharnessed potentialities for student progression and inculcating employability skills.

    • ●  Enhance strategic engagement and capacity building endeavours in sports making best use of the comradeship of the sports-cohorts

    CHALLENGES

    The Centenarian, Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan Government College Ajmer, toiling to educate more than 8000 students, harbouring 22 departments, ranging over the three faculties of Arts, Science and Commerce, is one of the biggest government colleges of the State of Rajasthan.

    Being a Government Institution of higher education of this stature, at district headquarters, brings along with it both opportunities and challenges

    The major challenges for our institution includes:

     

     

    ●  Endeavouring for the holistic development of youth, a significant number of which are from rural background of Ajmer and the neighbouring districts and are the first-generation learners.

     

     

    ●  Monitoring learning outcome and planning accordingly for individual level mentoring and adaptive student based learning

     

     

    ●  Setting platform for brain-based adaptive learning with the aim of the holistic development i.e., a balance between curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular learning is the need of the our

     

     

    ●  Improvisation in pedagogical use of ICT enabled teaching–learning which has to be balanced with the traditional tutoring techniques

     

     

    ●  Generating core self-learning, facilitative-learning environment and learning management system for upsizing gross enrollment ratio is another challenge

     

     

    ●  Since appointments and placement of Teaching and Non-teaching staff are as per Government procedures and policies, the Institute has to regularly cope with the shortage of staff. The faculty and supporting staff has to make all efforts in the prevailing scenario to make ends meet, to impart quality educational environment in the institute.

     

     

    ●  In a Government Institution the funds required for the basic housekeeping governance are always sufficient but in view of the galactic infrastructure inherited by this prestigious institution, raising funds for the regular maintenance and sustenance of various activities in the institute, is a herculean task.

     

     

    ●  Despite having well qualified faculty, with an academic fervour and inclination towards research, the paucity of grants and funds is a challenge for progression in the arena. Opportunities to harness the potentialities of research, experience and research achievements are meagre. Collaboration with research centres and institutes for the purpose is an issue to be worked upon.

     

     

    ●  Non availability of vocational and professional courses in the institution affects the placement activities of the institution. Various skill enhancement programs along with NSS, NCC, YDC, Women Cell and other extra co-curricular activities of the institution provides platforms for grooming the students to be competitive, interactive and creative to facilitate their future placements.