The Minutiae in Evaluating and Recompensing Academics' Activities in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Uganda

Abstract

This article confronts the most heated debate regarding the assessment and evaluation of academics in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Uganda, by arguing that, indisputably, ‘Performance Evaluation’ serves a dual purpose that entails; 1) institutional performance, and 2) career growth of staff. The author argues that whereas the intent of performance evaluation is to unravel academics’ contributions as they pursue their mandate of teaching, research and community service to facilitate objective evaluation, numerous academic contributions have remained uncaptured, leaving many academics in total anguish and despair. In order to interrogate the challenge at hand, two theories; The Motivational theory of Life Span Development by Heckhausen (1995) and The Social Exchange Theory by Gouldner (1960) were adopted. The author used an integrative synthesis together with systematic reviews to achieve two study objectives namely; analysis of reasons for omitting some activities in the assessment and evaluation of academics in HEIs and, assessment of the implications of omitting such activities in the evaluation of academic staff in HEIs. It was established that institutions lacked effective, valid and comprehensive evaluation tools to capture critical facets of academics’ activities, which could potentially diminish academics’ enthusiasm and emotional engagement, as well as institutional productivity, visibility and quality. The paper recommends that in measuring effective teaching, assessors should focus on multiple pieces of evidence directly linked to suitability of materials and cases, preparedness, depth and level of engagement in class as well as learning activities to achieve the learning outcomes. Further research achievement should not be limited to paper publication but rather, to all research-related activities including supervision, completion rates of research students and research projects completed. Key Words: Higher Education