Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Freedom for Research, and National Development


Affiliations
1 Emeritus Professor, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai 400 094, India
 

This article discusses academic freedom for research with a focus on research in STEM fields. Any freedom is not absolute and is associated with certain responsibilities. Freedom for research has two dimensions: freedom for selecting topics for research and freedom for the conduct of research and this article focuses on the first dimension. The academic freedom available to faculty can be exercised by them to gain recognition based on scientometric indicators (number of articles, citations, journal impact factor, h-index, etc.), or to establish and deepen international collaborations, or to satisfy innate curiosity, but working to link their research to national development agenda is more significant for the country. Managements of higher education institutes should devise reward system to recognize such linkage.

Keywords

Academic Freedom for Research, Linking Research to National Development, Reward System, Scientometric Indicators.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Elkana, Y. and Klöpper, H., The University in the Twenty-First Century, CEU Press, 2016, pp. 185–186.
  • LERU, Doctoral degrees beyond 2010: Training talented researchers for society, The League of European Research Universities, March 2010.
  • Bush, V., Science – The Endless Frontier, A report to the President by Vannevar Bush, Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, July 1945.
  • Grover, R. B., The relationship between science and technology and evolution in methods of knowledge production. Indian J. Hist. Sci., 2019, 54(1), 50–68.
  • Grover, R. B., Integrating the function of a university to a work place to promote post-academic research. Curr. Sci., 2019, 117(7), 1140–1147.
  • Engel, D. W., Dalton, A. C., Anderson, K., Sivaramakrishnan, C. and Lansing, C., Development of technology readiness level (TRL) metrics and risk measures, PNNL-21737, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA, Oct 2012.
  • Carmack, W. J., Braase, L. A., Wigeland, R. A. and Todosow, M., Technology readiness levels for advanced nuclear fuels and materials development, INL/JOU-16-38690, Idaho National Laboratory, March 2017.
  • Straub, J., In search of technology readiness level (TRL) 10. Aerospace Sci. Technol., 2015, 46, 312–320.
  • Olechowski, A., Eppingerz, S. D. and Joglekar, N., Technology readiness levels at 40: A study of state-of-the-art use, challenges, and opportunities. Proceedings of PICMET’15: Management of the Technology Age, 2015.
  • Radhakrishnan, S., The report of the University Education Commission, Publication No. 606, Ministry of Human Resource Development, 1950.
  • Kothari, D. S., Report of the Education Commission 1964–66, Ministry of Education, Government of India, 1966, p. 389.
  • Kothari, D. S., Report of the Education Commission 1964–66, Ministry of Education, Government of India, 1966, p. 393.
  • Yash Pal, Report of the Committee to Advise on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, 2009, p. 66.
  • Kasturirangan, K., Draft National Education Policy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, 2019.
  • Sundar, N., Academic freedom and Indian universities. Econ. Polit. Wkly, 16 July 2018, LIII(24).
  • AAUP, In defence of knowledge and higher education, American Association of University Professors, January 2020.
  • AAUP, 1940 Statement on principles on academic freedom and tenure with 1970 interpretive comments, A Report by American Association of University Professors, 1970.
  • Conway, M., Contested ideas and possible futures for the university. On the Horizon, 2019, 28(1), 22–32; doi:10.1108/OTH-10-20190070.
  • Sarewitz, D., Necessary but not sufficient. Issues in Science and Technology, Winter 2020.
  • Flexner, A., The usefulness of useless knowledge. Harper’s Magz., October 1939, pp. 544–552.
  • Elkana, Y. and Klöpper, H., The University in the Twenty-First Century, CEU Press, 2016, p. 50.
  • AISHE, All India Survey on Higher Education, 2019, p. 21.
  • Kaldewey, D., The grand challenges discourse: Transforming identity work in science and science policy. Minerva, 2018, 56, 161–182.
  • Kothari, D. S., Report of the Education Commission 1964–66, Ministry of Education, Government of India, 1966, p. 280.
  • Elkana, Y. and Klöpper, H., The University in the Twenty-First Century, CEU Press, 2016, p. 184.
  • Balaram, P., Research assessment: declaring war on the impact factor. Curr. Sci., 2013, 104(10), 1267–1268.
  • Chaddah, P., Improving scientific research, even without changing our bureaucracy. Curr. Sci., 2014, 106(10), 1337–1338.
  • Neff, M. W., How academic science gave its soul to the publishing industry. Issues in Science and Technology, Winter 2020.
  • AISHE, All India Survey on Higher Education, 2018–19, Table 36.
  • USNAP, Graduate STEM education for the 21st Century, A consensus study report, The National Academies Press, USA, 2018, p. 111.
  • Crow, M. M., Building an entrepreneurial university. In the future of the research university: meeting the global challenges of the 21st century, Kauffman Foundation, USA, 2008, p. 16.
  • Jalote, P., Jain, B. N. and Sopory, S., Classification of research universities in India, Higher Education, 2019; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00406-3
  • Chaddah, P. and Lakhotia, S. C., A policy statement on dissemination and evaluation of research output in India. Proc. Indian Natl. Sci. Acad., 2018, 84(2), 319–329.
  • Chakraborty, S. et al., Suggestions for a national framework for publication of and access to literature in science and technology in India. Curr. Sci., 2020, 118(7), 1026–1034.

Abstract Views: 366

PDF Views: 121




  • Freedom for Research, and National Development

Abstract Views: 366  |  PDF Views: 121

Authors

R. B. Grover
Emeritus Professor, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai 400 094, India

Abstract


This article discusses academic freedom for research with a focus on research in STEM fields. Any freedom is not absolute and is associated with certain responsibilities. Freedom for research has two dimensions: freedom for selecting topics for research and freedom for the conduct of research and this article focuses on the first dimension. The academic freedom available to faculty can be exercised by them to gain recognition based on scientometric indicators (number of articles, citations, journal impact factor, h-index, etc.), or to establish and deepen international collaborations, or to satisfy innate curiosity, but working to link their research to national development agenda is more significant for the country. Managements of higher education institutes should devise reward system to recognize such linkage.

Keywords


Academic Freedom for Research, Linking Research to National Development, Reward System, Scientometric Indicators.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv118%2Fi12%2F1885-1892