Development of a Situational Judgment Test for Assessment of Non-Academic Competencies of the Candidates Appearing for Faculty Positions in Higher Education Institutions in Pakistan

Authors: Kousar Khand1, Arabella Bhutto, Adnan Pitafi

Currently, teachers for employment in higher education institutions in Pakistan are selected as per eligibility criteria set by Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and on knowledge-based testing. This recruitment criterion seems incomplete as it only judges the academic attainments and academic competences of the candidates applying for faculty positions. However, in the selection of appropriate faculty, other job-related non-academic competencies of the candidates such as interpersonal skills, personality, communication / motivation skills must be assessed and should be given due weightage in the selection process. This study presents development process of the situational judgment test (SJT) comprised of 20 situations with multiple responses devised per situation, for assessment of non-academic competencies of the short-listed candidates for faculty induction at the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Pakistan. This paper presents six such situations. To test the feasibility of the application and to measure the reaction of the candidates on the developed SJT, a pilot study was carried out on a convenient sample of 143 candidates prior to their appearance before the Selection Board of Mehran University of Engineering & Technology Jamshoro for appointments as Lecturers and Assistant Professors in different disciplines. Results of the pilot study were highly encouraging, since 31 selected candidates who performed well in the developed SJT were also found superior in academic attainments. The significant positive correlation at 73% was achieved after statistical test conducted through SPSS software. Of the selected candidates, 27 were male and 04 were female. Reactions of male and female candidates towards the contents and use of the SJT as a recruitment tool were greatly satisfactory. Considering the viability of application and positive reactions of the candidates towards the SJT developed in this study, it is recommended to be adopted as a tool for assessing the non-academic competencies of the candidates aspiring for faculty positions in higher education institutions in Pakistan.