An Exploration of the Views of Teachers in a Dental College on the Current Performance Appraisal Framework and Promotion Policy

Purpose The current description of performance appraisal and advancement in the academic setting in India is nebulous, leading to confusion and a lack of preparation for promotions. The current system of promotions was introduced a few decades ago to meet the demand of a rapidly growing dental education sector. There was a shortage of teachers and having a time-based eligibility for promotion ensured that these vacancies were rapidly filled. This study was conducted to investigate the perceptions of teachers in dental colleges in India regarding the performance appraisal framework. Methods The sample comprised teachers who are currently or were previously employed as faculty in a dental college. We used a purposive sampling and snowballing method for recruiting participants. Teachers working in both public and private dental colleges throughout India were invited to participate in this survey. The self-designed questionnaire was validated and disseminated using Google Forms and WhatsApp. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and answers to open-ended questions were noted. Results There were 97 respondents to the questionnaire. All of them were engaged in multiple duties such as academic, administrative and clinical. All the respondents had a good number of publications. Around 45 (46.3%) teachers in the study sample got their first promotion on time. Sixteen (16.4%) of the respondents had applied for promotion through the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS), out of whom only 5% had been promoted. A majority of them (n=51; 52.5%) had up to five research papers where they were the first author whereas 23 (23.7%) of them had up to 10 papers as the first author during their academic careers. Eighty-six (88.6%) of the respondents shared that they fulfilled the eligibility criteria for a promotion. Twenty-seven (27.8%) teachers felt the current academic advancement framework was adequate for promotion. Fifty-five (56.7%) respondents felt the current promotion guidelines were not aligned with the goals and mission of dental education and academia, whereas 33 (34%) of them said the current promotion criteria were not congruent to the roles they were fulfilling in academia. Conclusions We feel that the current atmosphere in dental academia is one of general discontent towards performance appraisal and promotion policy as evidenced from the survey responses. Promotions are awarded to individual faculty members based on their accomplishments in research, teaching, and administrative responsibilities. Successful candidates must demonstrate that their accomplishments merit promotion. If we want to develop institutions as centers of excellence, we need to take a step back and reflect on where we are heading with the current framework for academic advancements, and then create a new one to achieve excellence.