Students, you get to pick your gurus

BANGALORE: If you're aspiring to be a lecturer in some Bangalore colleges, you'll make the cut only if your future students are impressed by your teaching ability. For, some college managements are taking students' feedback after shortlisted candidates give them demo lectures which range anywhere between 15 minutes and 50 minutes.
Candidates are usually assessed by a selection team comprising the dean, subject teacher and head of the department and a management representative.After the lecture, students can ask questions and the committee takes students' opinion before making the final choice. However, it's only one component of the evaluation.
One such college is Mount Carmel College whose principal of the PU section Sr Sonia Nazareth said this is done for all courses. "Managements and the principal do have a say but student feedback is also important. We ask candidates to give the demonstration for the II PU class, which could be between 15 minutes and 20 minutes. Students then give their views," she said. She wasn't sure when this practice was started.
It's no different at Christ University. According to its official, there are three levels of recruitment — interview, demonstration and salary fixation. "The duration of the demo depends on the subjects after which feedback is taken."
He said that this system has been in place for over 10 years. Principal of APS College of Commerce P Krishnamurthy points out: "A gap between a final-year student and a candidate who has finished his post-graduate course is just two years. Hence, students make better judges.” He added that the feedback is more indicative than final. This practice is there more than a decade.