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Netizens on social media platform X were shocked when an email from a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi was posted online on July 4, rendering it to public scrutiny.
The email, sent by Vishal Vaibhav, an Assistant Professor in the Optics and Photonics Center, was addressed to Director Professor Rangan Banerjee and Dean of Faculty Professor Krishna Achuta Rao.
With over 6,00,000 views, the email has sparked widespread reactions — there are those who support Professor Vaibhav for bringing attention to the toxicity in academia, while others criticise his insolency when it comes to dealing with professional matters, but the question that should arise is...
...was it impertinence or frustration?
EdexLive, in an exclusive conversation with Professor Vishal Vaibhav, inquired into the processes leading to such an outrageous act.
"The institution painted me in a poor light. Despite my attempts at uncovering the truth about my poor performance the institution, throughout the entirety of the process, kept eluding and misappropriating information even though the assessment was available," claimed an irate Dr Vaibhav.
Professor Vaibhav, an alumnus of IIT Delhi, joined the Department of Physics in November 2019. He was initially on a one-year probationary period, till 2020. Upon completing this period, he submitted his first special appraisal form, where he received no feedback on his performance.
The probationary period was further extended by a year till 2021, and similar conduct followed. His request to obtain appraisal feedback through official channels remained unanswered.
His probation was extended again, this time by six months for the third time, until May 2022. According to the documents to which EdexLive has exclusive access to read, as such, "There was no prior communication from the Optics and Photonics Center or the Institute regarding my performance. Notification of extension of probation by six months came along with a feedback..."
The feedback dated February 2022 (almost eight weeks after the expiration of the probation period) read as such, "The poor feedback received from some of the students of Prof. Vaibhav highlighted by the previous HoD."
Where did the contention lie here? As per the documents received from Dr Vishal Vaibhav, the poor feedback did not align with the teaching feedback, or the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) data, collected from the students.
This was the genesis of a prolonged issue that would continue till 2024.
Having been subjected to several forms of biases by the administration and his department, Professor Vishal contended that the appraisals were conducted by the Standing Committee after the end of the probation period (a possible violation of the Department of Personnel and Training [DoPT] rules).
As per the academician, whose struggles seem endless, told EdexLive that he wanted to seek the truth and not let the academic standards of his course take a toll. "I struggled to be in a system where such elusive games were being played. There was a lack of transparency. My quest to understand the metrics on which I was being evaluated was not even available. Many questions arose and I sought to seek answers to them," expressed Vaibhav.
Concerns with the appraisal
Appraisals at the institution take into account several aspects including the assessment of teaching activities.
Professor Vaibhav asserted, "The analysis is done both qualitatively and quantitatively. Students have to grade the course and also give their feedback. It was surprising to find, through the ERP data procured from the system, that feedback received from the students was categorically "good", yet I received a poor assessment every time."
A four-member committee was constituted against a complaint filed by Professor Vishal Vaibhav in May 2022, where they concluded that his teaching feedback is good, although his interpersonal relations can improve.
As per Vishal Vaibhav, the former HoD of the Department, Dr Rajini* while providing an assessment for his course (PYL800 undertaken in 2020-21) claimed that the teaching feedback was "poor".
Other appalling remarks were made such as no direct teaching, student assignments being unmarked, students dropping out of the course due to fear, and others.
Whereas, according to Professor Vishal, his feedback score as per the ERP for the course was 3.66/5, a categorically good score. He further rebutted the claims made by the HoD, saying that there was an eight-hour interaction time per week on average, he shared the scores duly, and 17 students were graded for that course.
Contradictions?
Due to the alleged botched feedback, Director at IIT Delhi Dr Rangan Banerjee, communicated to him, via an Official Memorandum, the recommendations of a four-member committee in May 2022, after Professor Vishal took it to the faculty forum and refused to submit his appraisal forms after observing the serious mistakes and the uncooperative stance of the administration in addressing his concern.
The letter by the Director stated, "The assessment committee rated his teaching feedback as good, and this[four-member] committee also agrees to that having gone through his teaching feedback. This is in contradiction to what was communicated to him, and which appears to be the main reason for his emails to the Dean, Director, and Faculty Forum. The [four-member] Committee recommends an official communication to Prof. Vaibhav clarifying the rating of his teaching."
Again an Oversight Committee's (OC) report, dated June 2023, which was released after a complaint was filed by Dr Vishal Vaibhav in March 2023, revealed that the HoD entirely disregarded the ERP feedback data in her assessment. The OC later concluded that the ERP data was correctly assessed by the Standing Committee only in the next appraisal period.
"It appears that the feedback given by the Head of the Department to the Faculty Appraisal Committee was based on her interactions with the students who had approached her, and it appears that many of these students dropped the course subsequently," stated the report of the OC, which carried out the inquiry into the allegations levelled by Dr Vaibhav regarding his teaching feedback.
Violation of norms
According to the report of the OC, Prof Rajini had based her remarks on the opinion of the students who had dropped out of the course, which the IIT Delhi professor thinks to be as inequitable, as students who drop the course become ineligible for the complete evaluation of the course or, to the very least, no more eligible than the students who complete the course, as far as the teaching performance of the instructor is concerned.
He calls this a selective bias displayed towards him. He asserts, "Remarkably, none of the other Standing Committee members questioned this selective approach!"
However, this was cited as one of the reasons for extending his probation by another six months, despite already having been on probation for two years by that point.
This was also an alleged violation as, "Save for exceptional reasons, probation should not be extended for more than a year and in no circumstance an employee should be kept on probation for more than double the normal period", reads a Department of Personnel & Training circular, dated March 11, 2019.
The continual extension of the probationary period was not the only hassle he and his PhD student had to endure. "Our seed grant was delayed and curtailed. My sponsored project was stalled. The infrastructure needed could not be procured on time. I gave her my personal pieces of equipment to work on. My PhD student's work was stifled and activities delayed," he told EdexLive.
Lastly, he added, "Last, but not the least, this destroyed my peace of mind which was needed to conduct the kind of research we were doing on advanced mathematics and computation, which requires dedicated effort because the bar of innovation is very high."
No transparency
After filing several RTIs regarding the stance of the standing committee and their remarks, Prof Vaibhav received full purview of the meetings.
"There are no defined standard operational procedures. The decisions taken by the standing committee have no objectivity, sometimes attributing to schizophrenic posturing, where they act on whims, instead of facts," claimed the professor.
As Professor Vaibhav also had a distinguished PhD student under his supervision, he expressed that the entire process began to take a mental toll on him, resulting in outbursts of deep-seated angst.
"I started filing RTI requests and First Appeals since 2022 in my quest to uncover the truth which was kept hidden from me. I was being targeted by a few senior faculty members who denied me the information or the clarity I was seeking. This has taken a serious toll on my mental health and I cannot fully describe its impact on my career and that of my PhD student," said he.
After he was temporarily suspended, as per an Office Order dated April 12, the IIT Delhi Professor was denied access to his lab, especially at a crucial time when his PhD student's preliminary defence and manuscript submission was going on.
"We needed to have discussions on the data we collated, but there was no academic space provided to us anymore. My PhD student received an award at PIERS 2023, Prague, where no Indians won any award in the student category in the past. She was also the first one from IIT Delhi in the past ten years to have won awards at that prestigious conference," said Dr Vaibhav, adding, "Stakes were high for her to perform well, but somehow we persevered although with great difficulty."
Professor Vaibhav sought full disclosure regarding
a) Data misrepresentation
b) Annulment of appraisals
c) Falsified teaching assessments
d) Misrepresentation of the Standing Committee's decisions and other issues
His petitions to the Board of Governors were ultimately rejected in their 215th meeting in August 2023, without any reasons provided for it.
Was Professor Vaibhav the only one to have suffered?
Narratives of trials and tribulations often remain hidden due to the high stakes involved for these academicians. Speaking out against powerful bodies can be perilous. However, Dr Vishal Vaibhav confidently asserted his readiness to be a whistleblower regarding operational failures and instances of academic bullying, where those in power leverage their positions to advance their careers at the expense of newcomers in the field.
"Given that there is very little transparency in the system (which is by design) and no safeguards as provisions for the younger faculty members exist, we stand no chance of holding the administration accountable," alleged Dr Vaibhav on the hierarchical system of oppression.
According to Dr Vaibhav, his sponsored project was stalled for eight months due to conflicts with both the institute's and the government's regulations. However, the project is now in operation. "Out of sheer frustration and because no proper procedure was followed, I withdrew the project. My seed grant was also curtailed," he shared.
"I was deprived of a grant of Rs 50 lakh"
Another former professor who served at the Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology from 2019 to 2021, on the condition of anonymity, came forth with incriminating details underlining the injustice suffered at the hands of a senior faculty member at IIT Delhi.
"He (a senior faculty member) single-handedly tried to sabotage many opportunities and was never supportive. It was circulated that I did not contribute meaningfully to the department, but they overlooked my contributions," alleged the former IIT Delhi professor, aggrieved by the allegations.
A document was shared by the professor (identity kept anonymous due to privacy concerns) with EdexLive with the minutes of the meeting dated 2020. It mentioned that the head of the meeting appreciated the professor for "successfully organising and completing the MSR/PhD recruitment (in virtual mode) for Sem 1", where a record number of PhD students had joined. He added that he, as well as another professor, were awarded citations.
Another instance the aggrieved professor referred to was the IIT Delhi administration maligning his teaching procedures, wherein, they had alleged that his teaching score was less than 3.0, whereas, the ERP data feedback on the system showed that his score was more than 3 during that semester, a case much similar to that of Professor Vishal's.
The professor was also deprived of his Faculty Innovation and Research-driven Entrepreneurship (FIRE) grant worth Rs 50 lakh, granted by the institute itself, as he required a sabbatical to conduct his research back in Germany.
"The institute has discretion here on whether to grant you the time required to set the research. My research was on critical metals recovery and semiconductors. This research could have been a matter of national importance. My agenda was to set up my project in Germany and then commercialise the technology here in India, but it was not approved," expressed the Professor.
Similar instances of alleged harassment, such as being denied a post-doctoral opportunity, facing resignation issues, enduring various forms of humiliation, and more surfaced during his tenure. Lastly, he had to resign in December 2021, after being there for close to three years.
"Selfishness of the system"
Another former professor now employed at a major global healthcare and pharmaceutical company in the United States, served at IIT Delhi as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology for no more than nine months, from April 2021 to December 2021. His main contention was the lack of crucial leadership in leading research opportunities.
"There is a lot of flip-flopping in the research area at IIT Delhi. The labs were in a dilapidated state, not equipped enough to carry out research," the professor told EdexLive, in an exclusive conversation.
Not only this, he further specified that the HoD provided no solution for it, except that one needs to apply for grants.
"You have to research to apply for grants, now there are no good prospects for research, how do I get a grant then? It was an unending dilemma for me. Hence, I decided to not continue at the institution," said the former professor.
Can there be a solution to it, if one may inquire? These academicians claimed that they had alternate career paths to choose after being subjected to all that happened at IIT Delhi, but what about those who might not have such an option, they lament. These individuals might be entrenched in the system so deep with nowhere else to go, they reason.
Remarking on the abject situation of the professors, not only at the IITs but many other premier research facilities in India, the professor stated, "The hegemony of senior faculty members, the mismanagement and absence of concrete rules, and at times severe abuse of power have led many of the faculty members to be in a burn-out situation and forced to suffer at a prime time of their career."
However, when asked if Dr Vaibhav would succeed in his crusade for justice, he responded, "It's often said that one must be part of the system to challenge it. But will the system pay attention to scholars like Professor Vishal Vaibhav...? That is the selfishness of the system."
Dr Vaibhav as a whistleblower of the operational failures at IIT Delhi hopes that perhaps this might bring fairity to the system and junior faculty members would be granted the liberty to improve the academic standards.
"This is very much a top-down model of corruption and the younger faculty members have only two options: toe the line or be at the receiving end of abuse of power! But it has to end," he said with dismay.
(*name changed upon request and privacy concerns)
Dr Vishal Vaibhav is now under suspension until October 2024, as declared by an official order, dated July 10, 2024. EdexLive contacted IIT Delhi for their comments, but received no response as of yet.
