Achieving Excellence in Institutions of Higher EducationChallenges and Solutions

Dr. Urmila Sangwan Associate Professor Deptt. Of English G.C.G.Sector-14,Pkl. Why are we concerned with Excellence in Higher Education ? With higher education becoming an international service, there is growing concern the world over about excellence, standards and recognition. First of all I would like to explain the concept of quality. In the contest of higher education it denotes the quality of its students their knowledge, skill, attitude, values and conduct on the one hand and the quality of inputs and process of the system on the other. It also stands for relevance and responsiveness viewed in terms of national and international needs. One can look at the quality of out put, in terms of the quality of the graduates universities and colleges produce the values they acquire, employability of graduates and earnings associated with their education. A university according to Jawahar Lal Nehru stands for humanism, tolerance, reason, the adventure of ideas and for the search for truth. Let us realize that the progress and development of a nation depends on the standard of excellence set by its institutions of higher learning because centres of academic excellence generate creative talents. However, excellence is not democratic, but democracies thrive on excellence; democratizing excellence through adopting best practices brings out quality enhancement and thereby advancement of the society.

Achieving Excellence in Institutions of Higher Education: There is general agreement that the state of Indian Higher education is far from satisfactory. The overall impression amongst laypersons is that standards are deteriorating and that the knowledge and skills imparted by our academic institutions are to a great extent irrelevant to the needs of society. The failure of

the system to deliver the goods has been attributed to a number of maladies including its colonial roots, the failure to control unplanned expansion, perennial shortage of funds, inflexible academic structures with an antiquated examination system, highly politicized and bureaucratized systems of management, and a general lack of concern. In the context of globalization an technological advancement, the need for and importance of flexible training to bridge the skills gap is heightened. Flexible training includes enterprise-based training and continuous education, for the creation of a highly skilled work force as it enables enterprises and nations to achieve competitiveness and workers to achieve employability in a global economy. It is for this reasons that the concept of employability needs to be focused in higher education by equipping people with the skills they require to be employable or to create their own jobs. Enterprises are looking for adaptable people with sound judgement and reasoning, able to solve problems, identify new opportunities and give customer specific services. The integration of the two aspects of increased market access and contributing to national development is a challenging task for higher education in India. If we dont take pains in time, we must be ready to see the conquest of foreign universities over the higher education institutions in India. In this global competition, there will certainly be survival of the fittest and these who are not conscious of these challenges and relevance will vanish from the scene. The fittest technical, medical and social science institutions are export houses rather than attracting overseas students into their fold and earning foreign exchange. It is time to establish centers abroad or to get people to study here. NEED FOR PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN INDUSTRY AND GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS : Countries which thrive in this new global economy are those which achieve a situation where they secure for their people a process of permanent education and training. This means that there is a need for a partnership between industry and government and educational institutions, which ensures continued training of the workforce to meet the challenges. If the overall standard of education is to

improve much greater attention needs to be paid to our undergraduate programmes in the liberal arts in which 88% of our students are engaged. Bachelor degree in Arts, Commerce or Science do not count for much in the employment market. In order to make these programmes more meaningful, an ambitious programme of vocationalization of courses, by including an applied component must be implemented more effectively by UGC. The underlying idea is to produce graduates who meet the requirements of potential employers or acquire the competence to start out on their own. First, we should strengthen elementary and secondary education so that most of the plus two pass-outs are able to stand on their own feet, and earn their livelihood. It will also solve the problem of ever increasing number of students in institutions of higher education. Second, if regular guidance or counseling is provided during or after plustwo stage many would not join colleges. It requires guidance and counseling centers at various places especially in rural and sub-urban areas. Third, the higher education should have the capacity of meeting the educational requirements of diverse sectors of the society. The immediate need is to develop networking with universities and industries to provide varying cultural and professional experience to students and faculty so that the academic inputs in terms of curriculum and the teaching learning processes and the research output, all will facilitate the achievement and realization of our educational mission. Need for Choice of Professional, Inter-Disciplinary and Multi-Disciplinary Courses : By far the most populas single technical course preferred by almost all the HEIs is computer education. HEIs will have to have updated and modernized curricula with the choices made in favour of professional courses. Microbiology, management, commerce, computer science, information technology, environmental sciences, petroleum technology, paper technology, power electronics, mass communication, visual arts, medical chemistry, computer-aided

textile designing, developmental economics, bio-technology, genetics, industrial economy, industrial microbiology, forensic chemistry etc have potential value addition for those who seek employment. HEIs should have inbuilt curricular strategies to widen the skill base of undergraduates by making it obligatory for them to choose some courses of other faculties external to them. Thus science students are made to take some arts courses and vice versa. There are other more contributive inter-disciplinary programmes which have greater potential for value addition. Thus courses generated by history and archeology, language and journalism, physical science and medicines, geography and environmental science among others are some inter disciplinary combinations which may be included in the curricula of HEIs. Some more strategies of value addition will have to be framed. Such as preparatory courses which facilitate entry into international career and global higher education overseas, and coaching for entry into public services in the country. Need for Industry institution integration through Industrial Presence on Campus vis--vis Academic Presence in Industry : Industry institution integration will be helpful to provide study cum work experience in the premises of a company. This provides attempts to concretize industry institution links in Management studies through innovative strategies. Students selected on the basis of established requirements of merit and experience are given management development courses of varying durations in the premise of the company. The three-year degree programme is equivalent, in curricular, content and practice, to those of an MBA degree and the certificates and diplomas also maintain high standards. Unavailability of funds and Financial Problems of private educational institutions:

Self-sufficiency is treated as conservatism in the age of much-bublicised globalization. University education like other critical areas, is no longer on the agenda of the government. Universities and private educational institutions are directed to raise their own funds and manage with their own resources. To start new professional courses and expand the admissions in the existing such courses, posts from the non-professional disciplines are shifted to the departments serving professional courses. There is an acute shortage of funds and the staff in private institutions as new posts are not sanctioned there for a long time. Funding for research and library purposes is declining with every passing day. The unavailability of funds for research and new books and journals makes it extremely difficult to keep the flame of research burning. The resources crunch has eaten way the vital aspect of creation of knowledge and paralyzed research. The governments are not prepared to shoulder the responsibility of payment of salary bills and arrears on account of pay revision. At the same time, new universities are opened which remain stillborn due to the unavailability of funds. Above all resources must be found for the colleges and universities. Whether these resources are to come from the government or industry, is a matter that has to be decided quickly. If colleges and universities are asked to be self financing in respect of a major portion of the pay of teachers and tuition fees are allowed to be raised as per market demand, much of the evils of neglect of institutional education by teachers can be remedied. Only those imparting quality education will be able to attract students at higher costs of education. Here I would like to suggest that the poor and meritorious students may be protected from the onslaught of the market by the payment of stipends, and other types of assistance provided by the stage. Needless to mention, the state has to continue its policy of giving heavy assistance to the educational institutions in respect of infrastructure like buildings, libraries and laboratories, equipments etc. If teachers find that the very existence of their institutions along with their growth prospects depends on the quality of service rendered by them, they will be compelled to attend to their duties sincerely. There should be an appropriate

incentive disincentive mechanism. Incentives in the form of advance increments, promotions etc, should be given to the teachers whose performance is provide to the above average. Disincentives in the form of stoppage of increments for some specified period should be invoked in the case of those who are below average. As a result of absence of award for excellence and motivation and job security even in case of poor performance or non-performance, teachers who are motivated and innovative find neither a conducive atmosphere in the HEI nor any job satisfaction.

Conclusion :
The immediate need is to understand the nature of the global environment and develop networking with universities and industries to provide varying cultural and professional experience to students and faculty to enable them to compete with foreign institutions.