Infrastructure Utilization and Maintenance Policy
Government College Kottayam has a well-established policy on the optimum utilization and proper maintenance of the physical facilities, classroom and laboratory facilities, library facilities, IT facilities and other facilities provided by the college. In addition to this, the policy document ensures uninterrupted and smooth functioning of the facilities and support service and prevents the misuse and misconduct of resources and facilities. The overall policy thus ensures timely up-gradation, replenishment, repairing and replacement of the resources and facilities, and hence creates an ideal and safe working environment for the stakeholders.
Students optimally utilize all physical, infrastructure, and IT facilities during the daylong working hours. Faculty members of respective department monitor effective utilisation of the facilities provided by the department, while monitoring of common facilities like library, hostel, seminar hall, auditorium, etc. is done by respective in-charge or committee concerned. College ground and other sports facilities are monitored by the Head of the department of physical education. IQAC ensures optimal utilization of all the facilities through review meetings, and prepares and submits proposals for the implementation or upgradation of any additional facilities, if needed.
Government College Kottayam is under the direct administration of the Director of Collegiate Education (DCE), Government of Kerala. Being a fully government owned institution, the maintenance of buildings including hostels and library buildings is done by PWD Buildings Division of Government of Kerala. To identify the maintenance work, college constitutes a committee, viz. Institutional Infrastructure Maintenance Committee (IIMC). Members of the committee identify the maintenance works of various college buildings from various sources. The college council discusses the same and entrust the IQAC to prepare proposals to be submitted to the DCE, in consultation with the PWD. An estimate of the maintenance work is prepared by the PWD in Price software, and the college submits the proposals to the DCE for administrative sanction and financial approval. Hostel warden reports the maintenance of hostel buildings directly to the DCE. Maintenance fund is allotted by the DCE under the respective head in the Annual Plan Fund of Government of Kerala, and the college/hostel deposits the same with the PWD.
Electrical maintenance work too is done through the same procedure with the support of PWD electrical wing. Some specific maintenance work will be done with the support of Nirmithi Kendra, Kottayam, an accredited agency with District Collector as Chairperson, which is working in accordance with the Government Order issued by the Government of Kerala from time to time. Financial support for some minor maintenance works is given by the College Development Committee (CDC) chaired by the District Collector. One of the faculty members of the college acts as the staff nominee to the CDC and the principal is the the secretary. Maintenance of classrooms and laboratories is also done by the PWD or Nirmithi Kendra, following the same procedure mentioned earlier. Maintenance of laboratory equipment and IT infrastructure is done utilizing the CDC fund or PD accumulated fund, following the guidelines given by the State Government. PTA fund is also utilized for minor maintenance works of furniture and equipment following the procedures given in the PTA bylaw.
Mentoring Policy
Mentoring is one of the best practices of Government College Kottayam. Hence, the college insists all mentors and mentees to follow the mentoring policy in all mentoring programme procedures. The mentoring system is structured in such a way that in the beginning of an academic year, each department divides the newly admitted students of the department equally among the permanent teachers of the department. Each mentor has about 10-15 mentees every year. The mentors conduct periodic meetings of the mentees and monitor their activities, address their concerns, provide proper guidance, assess their progress and record them in the register. In case the mentor leaves, the information about the mentee needs to be shared with the new mentor.
The college insists mentors to keep honesty, integrity, openness and respect for mentees in all activities. All mentors should keep a confidential data sheet about their students which records a report of mentoring done by the teachers. Mentees should be regular and punctual for meetings with the mentor and should adhere to the mentoring process. Mentors should address personal issues of mentees confidentially, diligently, and responsibly. If external involvement is needed, the mentor can approach the Counselling Centre of the college, viz. Jeevani. A committee is constituted by the College Council to periodically review the effectiveness of the mentoring programmes.
Research Policy
To contribute to the societal development, it is important to promote research aptitude and inculcate research culture among teachers and students. In view of this, Government College Kottayam adopts a research policy in accordance with the rules and regulations of Mahatma Gandhi University and the UGC, and in line with the policies of the Government. College constitutes a Research Council to coordinate all research activities of the college. The Research Council comprises of all research supervisors and scholars of the college. The Research Council conducts periodic meeting to discuss the important research activities and programmes and informs researchers about the window of opportunities announced by various agencies in India and abroad. To encourage research activities of faculty members and students, respective Research Promotion Cells are working in the college.
In today’s academia, it is almost impossible for a researcher to confine his interest within the boundary of a particular discipline. To really synthesize idea units and integrate them into one with a solid structure, it is important to remove the rigid barriers of a discipline and merge two or more different disciplines together. Pertaining to this, the college started an Interdisciplinary Research Centre that provides a platform for the faculty members of different departments to work together and share their expertise, and synthesize or integrate new ideas. Furthermore, an Inter Disciplinary Forum for Research (IDFR) has been constituted to improve the inter-departmental research collaborations. The college promotes multi-disciplinary research and inter-institutional research collaborations including signing of MoU’s. A sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (SAIF) was established to support researchers in the college and other institutions for the analysis of research samples, conveniently and economically.
The college is committed to strictly adhere to the ethical principles and policies in designing, conducting, and reporting of research. The college insists faculty members and scholars to keep honesty, objectivity, integrity, openness, respect for intellectual property and social responsibility in all research activities. The college advises the scholars to practice research ethics in publications. Plagiarism check of papers and thesis is mandatory. Researchers are advised to meet ethical obligations of published data.