University News, 45(29), July, 6-8, 2007. RECHARGING QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION K. Muralidharan Department f Statistics, Faculty of Science M. S. University of Baroda, Vadodara 390 002, India. Email: lmv_murali@yahoo.com The quality and standard of higher education was always seen as a hot topic of discussions in many deliberations and seminars. It was always been a concern for academicians, educationists, managements and students for decades. Quality practice and quality thinking have become essential for all and is debated in various academic campuses and Diasporas across the country. Although many ways and methods for quality improvement in higher education has yielded from these forums only few saw the limelight. Many rules, regulations and policies have been proposed and renovated to accommodate quality concepts in higher education year after year by the state and central governments. Lots of plans and techniques are either proposed or in are practice to support the inflow and outflow of knowledge dissemination. Still the plan outlay of higher education has always got a low beating retreat. Neither a plan nor a policy has designed so far to cater the needs of faculties and students to meet their overall development. What we need at present is an educational revolution which can help to tap the potential of our human brains. In this scientifically recharged environment where do we stand as far as our credentials of higher education are concerned? The objective of preparing this article is to suggest some methods to recharge the quality in higher education. The last two decades have shown tremendous improvement in the education and other academic related activities because of advancement in science and technology. The expectations and requirements from the faculties and students have thus grown in size and character. Higher education institutes and student strength have also increased in
leaps and bounds. Many commissions and review committees have appointed to study the situations time to time. Still the standard of the education has not changed much. The only solace is that the system has accepted the changes happening locally and globally. Because of this the quality perception of teachers, managements and students has changed with a paradigm shift. All this means the entire quality management of education has also got a face lift. The technical and scientific advancement in the education and the global competition among the institutes, students and faculties have contributed to this paradigm shift. In order to sustain the global competition we need to identify the potential of our faculties and students for which we need to build a strong force: a human force consisting of educated brains which includes both faculties and students, knowledge force and resource force. I will now describe how this can be achieved in a moderate set up of our educational institutions. Faculty force: The most responsible force to reckon within the human force is the teaching faculties or resource persons of any institutes. Because of lack of encouragement and poor infrastructure facilities our faculties are looking for better opportunities in foreign countries. Although the reasons are many, it is to be admitted that we have a poor research facilities and insufficient funding. In particular the faculties of universities and colleges are always treated in suspicion by the granting organization of the higher education. Most often the policies are made to discipline this force. The central idea of any investigation and case studies are targeted towards them. Because of this a large chunk of this fraternity is disappointed in imparting their stipulated duty. I think the policy makers should avoid this partisan behavior and concentrate on identifying their potentiality to deliver the things. The other discouraging factor is the poor management and biased attitude of local university administration towards their staff members. Subjective decisions and political interference makes matters worse than ever before. The granting organization in coordination with the universities or institutes can encourage deputational assignment for research, teaching and higher studies in any place 2
in and abroad. The attendance in refresher courses and workshops may be made mandatory for all and for presence in each should be rewarded with some incentives. So far these activities are meant only for promotion and other career related advancements. Compulsory participation in a couple of national or international seminars or conferences per year can also be made mandatory and identify the candidates according to their presence in the proceedings. For example if the candidate is attending the conference as an invited speaker, key note speaker, chair of a session or guest speaker etc then he or she should be rewarded with some incentive. The funding agencies can prepare modalities for executing this. Make provisions for transfer of employees of one university to another with higher scales or grades. This can help to restore the universal character of an institute and also help to retain the best faculties in the institute. A new academic culture can be developed from the expertise of the faculties and resource persons. The transfer of technology and knowledge automatically takes place in this process. New curriculums and specializations will be in order. Modalities should also be worked out simultaneously to take care of those dependants of the candidate on transfer, a move akin to employees of private organizations. Rewards and incentives can also be given for publications according to the standard of the research journals. This kind of practice is in force in many countries. Depending upon the impact factor coefficients of the journal the candidate should be rewarded for their research publications. Some premier institutes are doing this practice to encourage research in various disciplines. Let there be participation of university teachers in the government policy making bodies in a big way. Generally these opportunities are confined to faculties of premier institutes like IIT s, IIM s, IISc s and other government aided institutes. Teachers also should be allowed to work as consultants to companies and industries in collaboration with the university or college on a compulsory mode. So far only a nominal percentage of people own this responsibility. 3
The institutions can ask every teacher to be active in at least one activity for a term or a year. For example organizing a seminar, conference, workshop, refresher courses, orientation courses etc. at departmental level or university/college level will help the individual to know their expertise in their respective subject areas and administrative capabilities. The university institutions can consider this to be a method of evaluation of the faculty and for this service the faculties may be rewarded suitably. Student force: A better institute always has better students. They always make the institute proud in their academic activities. Still it is unfortunate that our students are finding greener pastures outside the country. Further they are establishing academic pursuits and growth in a foreign land. Irrespective of subjects and institutions there is an outflow of thousands of students every year. This leads to a large outsource of knowledge and wealth. The situation will be alarming in the near future as the demand for Indian students is on the rise. Since the employment opportunities are very low in India a large percentage of students become a depressed lot either because of their social background or because of limited opportunities. Those who can afford leave the country and those cannot become a burden for themselves and others. This aggravates the situation of restlessness and hence the graduate students slowly get into crimes and resort to shortcuts to make easy money. Here is some methods by which we can build an efficient student force: Those who have completed any under graduation may be compulsorily sent for a half year or a year for defense training as per their liking. During this period the candidates should be provided all amnesties including a regular pay. This may be termed as an internship program as practiced in other professional fields. Other than the regular funding agencies, the government can also directly deal with this situation. This will definitely boost the morale of the pass out students and open up new avenues for disciplined career and life. Another way of doing this is to make the NCC activities compulsory for all students in colleges and universities. So far only a few extra ordinary students get into full time defense jobs based on their certificates. Even the activities of NSS (so far neglected) can also give a face lift to identify potential students for a better 4
career. Their services can also be utilized for running the administration of that particular institute as a pay back gesture. The other neglected area which can give a boost is the sports and sports personality in academic institutions. It is a fact that very few states and universities give due importance for sports personalities. It is high time that the governing bodies and granting institutions should place importance for sports in academic institutions. See the plight of Indian sports performance in international and Olympic events. Compulsory sports participation depending on the person s capacity can lead to an overall discipline and help to identify the potential candidates from the academic institutions. The students who excel in sports should be always given priority in job postings and adhoc appointments immediately on completion of their studies. Knowledge force: A force which can coordinate both teachers and students is the knowledge force. Although the narrow gap between the teachers and students have contributed to the erosion of values and principles in education still the importance of student teacher relationship exists when we see it in terms of producer customer terms. This has further given rise to the materialism within the educational institutes. Allow students to participate in the preparation of the modal curriculum, syllabus preparation, administration etc. Let religion, region and socio-economic divide be a part of the curriculum. Make provisions for compulsory yoga and spiritual education in higher education levels. Allow the students to learn politics in the campus as long as it is clean and independent of political parties and their influence. All this will help the students to develop leadership qualities and instill the importance of democratic values and their importance in nation building. A most important method of creating knowledge force is to facilitate information technology (IT) education compulsory for all. Although the IT revolution is at its peak still there are many universities and colleges which are not connected to this system because of want of funds and infrastructures. I think the granting institutions should try to make every higher institutions self sufficient in achieving this target. This will help both 5
the faculties and students to acquaintance with the latest developments globally and locally. Let there be an online evaluation of teachers and students not only at the institution level but also at the national level. Teachers can very well submit their plan of actions, their implementations etc. and got evaluated at the higher ends. This way one can identify the cream of people who are part of the knowledge force. The impact of IT education is not limited to the individual level only. It can facilitate a good communication between the rural-urban educations as well. The benefits can even go up to the privileged as well as the non-privileged students. Many unknown subjects who have relevance at the local level will get universal importance and the enrollment of the students can also be increased considerably. Above all the importance of English language which is essential for IT education and for global competition also increases extensively. The evaluation of a curriculum, course, teaching methods, facilities etc can also be done very well with the help of IT education. Resource force: We should remember that the wealth of a nation is determined on the basis of educated people. Quality education rejuvenates good quality culture in an organization. This quality culture leads to the making of a quality people and hence a better nation. Privatization of education is not going to be a solution to any of these problems. Many developing countries are now stressing on their higher education to be active in the whole nation building process. This includes outsourcing of knowledge and manpower along with the marketing of education. The funding agencies and the so called guardian of higher education should play an effective role to stop this menace. It is high time that they should come up with a concrete plan to guard the educated brains. The other source of resource force is to create advanced level institutions and central universities in every state to potentially use their student power. As said earlier, in this materialistic world, the education is becoming more and more customer oriented and hence the curriculum must be productive in satisfying the larger request. A co-operative movement can also be thought of garnering the resources for a better higher education. The so called self financed institutions have only generated the wealth in leaps and 6
bounds whereas the standard of education is all time low in these private institutes. Neither they are catering the need of the privileged nor are they imparting the education for the real cause. The resources and the infrastructural facilities they have acquired are also very dismal in size. Therefore the local bodies, state governments and granting institutions should try to evolve a uniform policy to run the self financed institutes and coordinates the whole activities for better knowledge dissemination. Otherwise the purpose of self finance institutions will loose its character and substance. An approach which can integrate human force, knowledge force and resource force is the need of the hour. 7