SWOT ANALYSIS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA: …serialsjournals.com/serialjournalmanager/pdf/1470916937.pdf · Even though we have a huge pool of educated youth, they are. ... Swot

* Prof., Department of Business Administration, St. Joseph Engineering College, Vamanjoor, Mangalore-575028.

IJMRT • Volume 10 • Number 1 • January-June 2016: 23-35

SWOT ANALYSIS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA:ROLE OF CORPORATE SECTOR

Anjali Ganesh*

Abstract: India has developed one of the largest systems of Higher Education in the world with over230 universities and 6500 vocational colleges catering to about 10 million students. Most of these arepublicly funded although some may be privately run. The financing of higher education, however, isoften re prioritized due to competing demands for budgetary funds from primary and secondaryeducation sectors. The growth of higher education in India has been phenomenal. Improving theaccess along with equity and excellence becomes one of the core concepts of higher education in theIndian context. The growth in the nation must encompass inclusiveness that includes bridging upthe gap in the higher education in creating the students who are industry ready. The allocation ofresources must be focused on the indented short and long terms benefits and economic linkages atlarge and not just equitable mathematically on some regional and population criteria. Gap betweenthe needs of the industry and aspirations of higher education institutes in India is very large. Unlessthe there is a healthy reciprocal relationship between the industrial sector, and the Institutions ofhigher learning nothing can be expected in bringing out the students who are readily employable.Education and skill development assumes importance in translating the advantage of demographicdividend. Higher resource allocation for education in public and private spending can drive thegrowth concurrently with skill advancement and generating employment in the sunrise sectors.Present paper attempts to examine the role of corporate sector in higher education in India.

INTRODUCTION

Improving the access along with equity and excellence becomes one of the core conceptsof higher education in the Indian context. The world’s biggest multinational companiesare not only opening their back office operations but also their research centers inIndia. This trend is apparent not just in software development but in other sectors aswell such as financial sector, medical sector, biotechnology and others. India has thelargest higher education system in the world, with 31,000 institutes compared with6,742 in the US and 4,297 in China. The number of institutes has grown rapidly in lastfew years. In the last decade, the number of universities in the country has grown at aCAGR of 7.5% as against the 4.7% growth observed from 1951-2001. The number ofcolleges has grown at a CAGR of 11% in the period 2001-2011 as against 6.1% in theperiod 1951-2001. The cost advantage for higher research is huge in our country due towhich there is a growing need for corporate sector involvement. In the Indian context,even though we have a huge network of institutes of higher education in the field ofmanagement and engineering, the employ-ability of these graduates is highlyquestionable. Students graduating from the expensive private tertiary colleges are notreadily employable. Even though we have a huge pool of educated youth, they are

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less industry ready. In this respect, the industry should act as the active partner withthe higher education institutes to help them fill the gap between the employed and tobe employed. If we are able bring industry as an active supporter and a partner of thehigher education institutions then the strengths in the education sector can grow byovercoming the threats and weaknesses. This paper highlights the SWOT analysis ofthe higher education in the Indian context. The paper also highlights the role of thecorporate sector by taking up the brief case studies of two leading Indian IT companiesin creating value for Institutes of higher learning. The regulatory requirement for highereducation which acts as the real impediment in not only devising the innovativecurriculum in the higher education is also highlighted.

The growth in the nation must encompass inclusiveness that includes bridging upthe gap in the higher education in creating the students who are industry ready. Theallocation of resources must be focused on the indented short and long terms benefitsand economic linkages at large and not just equitable mathematically on some regionaland population criteria (Singh, 2008). Rapid and sustained poverty reduction requiresinclusive growth that allows people to contribute to and benefit from economic growth(Aghion, et al., 2005). Rapid pace of growth is unquestionably necessary for substantialpoverty reduction, but for this growth to be sustainable in the long run, it should bebroad-based across sectors (Aghion and Howitt 1992), and inclusive of the large partof the country’s labor force (Alesina and Perotti, 1996). According to the Commissionon Growth and Development report (2008), sustained high growth requires rapidincremental productive employment (Lopez, 2004b). There is no preconception or biasin favor of labor-intensive industry policies. Indeed, the self-employed poor needimprovements in productivity and leveling of the business environment in order toraise their incomes (Lopez and Servén, 2004). Inclusive growth is about raising thepace of growth and enlarging the size of the economy, while leveling the playing fieldfor investment and increasing productive employment opportunities. It focuses on ex-ante analysis of sources, and constraints to sustained, high growth, and not only onone group, the poor.

The central government funding on education is less than 1% of GDP. Thegovernment sponsored capacity building in not sufficient to meet the emerging needfor higher education. At present 14.6 million students are enrolled in higher educationsector. According to FICCI-E&Y report to achieve 30% gross enrollment rate (GER)over the next decade the country would need an additional capacity to cater to 25million new seats. The extra capacity generation would need an extra Rs. 10 lakh croresby 2020. The funding requirement is Rs. 0.4 million per seat. At the current budgetaryallocation for education, the funds would be insufficient. In this respect corporate sectorcan bridge the gap in budgetary allocation and required allocation.

FUNCTIONALITIES IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION STRUCTURE IN INDIA

Over the last 50 years, the Government of India has provided full policy support andsubstantial public funds to create one of the world’s largest systems of higher education.These institutions, with the exception of some notable ones, have however, not been

Swot Analysis of Higher Education in India: Role of Corporate Sector 25

able to maintain the high standards of education or keep pace with developments inthe fields especially in knowledge and technology. Over time, financial constraintswith exploding enrolments, and a very high demand from primary and secondaryeducation has led to the deterioration in the financial support provided by thegovernment. On top of this, an overall structure of myriad controls with a rigidbureaucracy has stifled its development. In terms of higher education, however, onthe science and technology side, India has however built up the largest stock of scientists,engineers and technicians. The growth of higher education in India has beenphenomenal. Starting with 1950-51, there were only 263,000 students in all disciplinesin 750 colleges affiliated to 30 universities. This has grown by 2005 to 11 million studentsin 17,000 Degree colleges affiliated to 230 universities and non-affiliated university-level institutions. In addition, there are about 10 million students in over 6500 invocational institutions. The enrolment is growing at the rate of 5.1 per cent per year.However, of the Degree students only 5 per cent are enrolled into engineering courses,while an overall 20 per cent in sciences. The demand for professional courses is growingrapidly. In India both public and private institutions operate simultaneously. In 2000-01, of In India both public and private institutions operate simultaneously. In 2000-01,of the 13,072 higher education institutions, 42 per cent were privately owned and runcatering to 37 per cent of students enrolled into Higher education, that is, approximately3.1 million out of total 8.4 million. It is also likely that most of the growth in the rapidlyexpanding higher education sector took place in private unaided college or in self-financing institutions. Since grant-in-aid to private colleges is becoming difficult, manygovernments/universities have granted recognition/affiliation to unaided colleges andmany universities have authorized new ‘self-financing’ courses even in governmentand aided colleges. It is felt that as of now more than 50 per cent of the higher educationin India is imparted through private institutions, mostly unaided (World Bank, 2005).

India has developed one of the largest systems of Higher Education in the worldwith over 230 universities and 6500 vocational colleges catering to about 10 millionstudents. Most of these are publicly funded although some may be privately run. Thefinancing of higher education, however, is often re prioritized due to competingdemands for budgetary funds from primary and secondary education sectors. As aproportion of GNP, Higher Education was only about 0.19 per cent in 1950-51. By1980-81 it went up five fold to 1 per cent but by mid-1990s it dropped to 0.4 per cent. Inthe government plan outlay the share of higher education doubled for 9 per cent in thefirst five year plan to 18 per cent in the second. It increased to 25 per cent in the fourthbut has now come down to 15 per cent in the seventh five year plan. In the eight fiveyear plan it was around 8 per cent. It may be stated that the non-plan expenditure ineducation is huge compared to plan expenditure. Resource crunch in higher educationis being felt in a serious way (Bhagwati, 2005). Other sources of financing besides thegovernment have to be developed so that the massive expenditure required expanding,improving and bringing it to world standards could be carried out. With an expandingmiddle class and globalization this is possible provided innovative policies areformulated and implemented. Unless India and the Indian Government takes seriously,

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the issues involved in providing higher education and increasing its accessibility,especially in subjects and areas where it is required most, we will fall behind and loseour lead.

The right kind of government policy incentives, the country can increase itseconomic productivity and the well being of its population by making effective use ofits knowledge. There is a need to make its education more ‘demand driven’ to meetthe emerging needs of the economy and to keep its highly qualified people within thecountry. This means upgrading quality of all higher education institutions, not just afew world class ones like the IITs. It has further analyzed that in order to make educationdemand driven we need to allow private sector to enter higher education by relaxingbureaucratic hurdles and putting an accreditation system in place for private providersof both higher education and vocational training. This will also involve university andindustry participation, which is currently lacking. Dependence on distance learningtechnologies needs to be increased substantially (World Bank report, April 2005). Aftergreen lighting the entry of foreign universities in to India, the centre has beguntightening the norms to ensure quality in Indian institutions. The Human ResourceDevelopment ministry has readiued the national commission for higher educationand research (NCHER) Bill 2010. The NCHER Bill 2010 mandates all the Indianuniversities, including deemed ones to come under the commission. This means thatthe higher educational institutions will commence their first academic operations onlyafter the commission authorises it. At least with the implementation of NCHER thecomplications involved with the functioning of too many regulatory bodies can beovercome successfully. Globalization, liberalization, and privatization have a greatimpact on improving quality of Indian Corporate, both in products and systems.Allowing foreign Universities will create competitive pressure on Indian private playersand public institutions to improve quality thereby benefitting all the stakeholders.Internationalization will create opportunities for Indian players to improve on all keyindicators like pedagogy, faculty salary, curriculum, research and administration. Lowcost of living and large English speaking population offers an opportunity to makeIndia a higher education hub in South East Asia. Realizing the need for activecollaboration of industry and academia FICCI is in process to form National KnowledgeFunctional Hub. This collaboration will work to improve the quality of graduates byproductively utilizing the experience of academia and capital goods companies. It isproposed to operate through Hub and Spoke model (Tiwari et al., 2013).

SWOT ANALYSIS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA

SWOT analysis enables the educationists, administrators as well as all the stakeholdersto understand the facts and figures regarding higher education. This process helps toidentify the gap in the system to seek feasible solutions for the same.

STRENGTHS OF INDIAN HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM

Well Established Educational Institutions- Since independence, higher educationalinstitutions have grown into a fairly large-sized system, offering opportunities for


education and training in variety of disciplines at certificate, degree, diploma,postgraduate degree etc. Technical institutes like IISc, IITs, IIMs are reputed all overthe world as also some of our traditional Universities.

Young Population – India is a nation of young people - out of a population ofabove 1.1 billion, 672 million people are in the age-group 15 to 64 years, which isusually treated as the “working age population”. It is predicted that India will see asharp decline in the dependency ratio over the next 30 years, which will constitute amajor demographic dividend for India.

Robust Economic Growth - After the liberalization of economy, Indian economyhas witnessed robust economic growth which has led adequate investment in theeducation sector. The allocation of funds in the higher education has considerablyincreased in the XI plan period.

Availability of Resources in the Market- Investment trend in education vindicatesthat funds are adequately available in the market to cope up with the pace ofdevelopment in the education sector. Various initiatives taken by the private sector inopening new institutions have resulted in tremendous expansion of educationalinstitutions.

Alert Civic Society- For educational development, civic society should be alert soas to monitor the development taking place in the education sector. India is a fortunateenough to have an alert civic society and this has resulted in maintaining the quality ofeducation.

A Large Number of Alumni Organizations Like Pan IIT Network In India AndAbroad-India is a large exporter of technical manpower and they continue to haveinteraction with their alumni. As a result the country continues to get the expertise ofthese Indian professionals working abroad.

WEAKNESS OF INDIAN HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM

Shortage of Faculty - As per the conservative estimates more than ten thousand postshave remained vacant in the higher educational institutions on account of nonavailability of suitable candidates. This is posing a threat for quality of educationimparted by educational institutions.

Existence of a Number of Regulators and Fragmentation of Higher Education-There are 13 regulatory bodies in existence to regulate higher education. Each regulatorybody functions in isolation. The regulatory provisions of the various Acts aresubstantially different from each other since they were created at different periods bydifferent ministries. An over regulated system consisting of multiple agencies tends toincrease inefficiency and breed corruption and malpractices.

Regional Imbalances- While all India average of GER of 23 states and UTs is lessthan 13.5%, the GER of 12 states and UTs is more than 13.5%. Eight states account forabout 70% of the total number of the universities and colleges whereas, 70% of technicalinstitutions are located in only 7 states.

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Inadequate Infrastructure Facilities- Higher education sector is facing acuteshortage of adequate infrastructure facilities. This is a stumbling block in the endeavourof government for expansion of higher education.

LOW EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH AND DISCONNECT BETWEENUNIVERSITIES AND RESEARCH LABORATORIES

Inadequate Response to PPP Mode-As per Education policy, 6% of the GDP is requiredto be invested in education. This has, however, not been done so far on account offinancial constraints. National Knowledge Commission has suggested modifying trustlaws and income tax laws so as to encourage private investment in education sector.As no action has been initiated in this regard, private investors are not showing anyresponse in this regard.

OPPORTUNITIES

Young Working Population — India is a nation of young people - out of a populationof above 1.1 billion, 672 million people are in the age-group 15 to 64 years.

Sharp Decline In Dependency Ratio- It is predicted that India will see a sharpdecline in the dependency ratio over the next 30 years, which will constitute a majordemographic dividend for India.

Invaluable Asset of Human Resource- India is second largest country in thepopulation. In the world having 672 million people are in the age group of15-59 years.This young population is an invaluable asset which, if equipped with knowledge andskill, can contribute effectively to the development of national as well as the globaleconomy.

Vast Scope for Expansion of Education- Formulating sustained strategies toenhance GER to 30% by 2020 as there is vast scope for expansion of education in India.

Global Hub In Education- India is emerging as a global hub in education.Government has taken number of steps in academic and institutional reforms in highereducation sector which marks a paradigm shift in the development of higher education.

THREATS/ CHALLENGES

Commercialization of Higher Education- There has been public concern that technicaland medical educational institutions and universities are charging enormously hightuition fees and also following unfair practices. Therefore, the higher education isbeyond the reach of common man. In order to overcome these malaises, governmenthas introduced a legislative proposal in the Parliament.

Deterioration in Quality of Education- The quality of higher education has beenan area of concern, particularly with the mushrooming of private institutions.Government has therefore introduced a legislative proposal for mandatory accreditationin the institutions of higher education.

Economic and Socio-cultural Factors- Unemployment in the country, shortage oftechnical manpower and cost of education are some of the economic factors influence


the education. Socio –cultural factors including lack of opportunities, status of women,disparity in the society, rural-urban divide also affects the development of highereducation sector.

External Factor Impacting the Department’s Functioning- Education is in theConcurrent list and both the central government and state governments are mandatedto make legislation on education. Many policies and programmes of the Departmentare either executed through state governments or they require extensive coordinationand cooperation of the state governments and therefore, unless centre and stategovernment work at tandem, their implementation would face rough weather(Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resources Development, GOI,2012).

According to Sanat Kaul, (2006), there are lots of gap between the demand andsupply factors in higher education in India, some of them are listed below.

• Highly bureaucratized system with multiple controls and regulations exercisedby Central and State Governments, statutory bodies (UGC, AICTE and others),university administration and local management.

• System is heavily subsidized by the Government. Up to 90per cent of theoperating costs are paid for by the state. The efficiency of fund utilization isvery poor due to internal rigidities.

• Salary and compensation for teaching staff is poor and, therefore, highereducation institutions are unable to attract and retain qualified and trainedteachers. Besides unattractive compensation packages, recruitment procedureis lengthy and working environment not conducive to retention. As a result, asubstantial proportion of high ranking students who could fill up suchassignments prefer to work elsewhere or go abroad.

• Most institutions offer outdated programmes with inflexible structures andcontent. While course content has been updated and restructured over time inthe world’s best institutions, Indian university curricula have lagged behind.

• Infrastructural facilities range from inadequate to dismal. Classrooms are oftenunattractive and laboratories inadequately stocked, leading to poor teaching.It is estimated that barely 20 per cent of the institutions have the basic minimumlaboratory equipment.

• Steady electric power supply is not available. Laboratories are poorly stockedand computerization, where it exists is generally dependent on poorcommunication lines.

• On the demand side, it may be stated that while merely 6 per cent of Indianstudents who clear the secondary level, choose to pursue higher education, inabsolute numbers this 6 per cent amounts to a lot of students. The dichotomylies in the fact that India’s mammoth higher education system, which is stillinadequate to cater to the number of aspirants for higher education, is on theother hand churning out many more graduates from its middle and lowerlevel institutions than can find suitable employment. This will need to be

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doubled in the next decade. This involves thousands of crores of Rupees ofinvestment. Since the Government will not be able to meet the requirement, allother sources of funds need to be tapped as well. There is a serious mismatchof demand and supply.

• The size of demand and its projected growth, clearly indicate the need for newinstitutions imparting quality education in subject areas of contemporaryrelevance and job opportunities. Quality can be ensured only if there is sufficientcompetition among institutes to attract talented students and provide choicesand innovative subject combinations. Unfortunately, the Indian regulatoryregime tends to stunt supply rather than increase it.

• There is no doubt that an ideal education system should be without any financialdiscrimination. However, fee caps tend not only to bring down quality butalso reduce overall supply of education. Under these circumstances, there is agreat need to go in for major financial innovations in education planning bothat student financing level and also at the level of educational institutions.

• There is an effort on the part of the Government to block the entry of foreignuniversities into India. While Singapore, Dubai, Bahrain and China areencouraging foreign universities to set up operations in their countries so thatstudents can have easy access to degrees from those well recognizeduniversities, there is a tendency to block such entry into India. Restriction onforeign investment in higher education is biased against economically weakerstudents, who cannot afford to go abroad and acquire foreign degrees.

• Universities in India are set up either through state legislation or through theacquisition of a ‘Deemed University’ status through UGC. While a number ofuniversities have Deemed University status, institutions offering traditionalundergraduate degrees do not have this option open to them. In a SupremeCourt judgement in the Chattisgarh case, the Court had decreed that eachUniversity set up should not only conform to the UGC norms but also be createdthrough a legislation. This makes setting up of universities not only a long andtedious process but also a costly one. In a similar way, AICTE used to collect adeposit per course of up to Rs 50 lakh, which was held in a joint account for 10years. Such measures increase the cost of setting up institutions.

Regulation, therefore, needs to be well structured and thoroughly researched totake full account of relevance, requirements, practical constraints and market realities.The objective of encouraging growth of educational institutions rather than restrictingthem should not be lost sight of.

ROLE OF CORPORATE SECTOR: A CASE STUDY OF INFOSYS AND WIPRO

Many multinational companies especially of Indian origin are rendering admirableservice exclusively in connecting themselves with the universities and educationalinstitutes. India’s second biggest software services exporter turns trainer for nearly30000 students it recruits from top engineering colleges every year. Its training campus


in Mysore can house about 15000 people. New recruits spend up to six months honingtheir skills as Infosys attempts to fill the gaps left by inadequate college education. TheCampus Connect (CC) programme launched by Infosys in May 2004 is a uniqueacademia-industry initiative to architect the education experience. Their goal is to builda sustainable partnership with engineering education institutions in India and abroadfor mutual benefit; producing industry ready recruits. The objective in launching theCC programme is to enhance the quality and quantity of the IT talent-pool; sustain thegrowth of the IT industry itself. Infosys does not aim to increase the number ofengineering colleges, or the number of graduates, but to increase the employability ofstudents by aiming at a consistent output, irrespective of all variables involved (David,2009). It doesn’t matter where the college is located (big city or remote town), the kindof faculty, or students. However the conditions may be, with the help of the partners(educational institutions), we want to achieve a high-quality employable graduates.Currently Infosys has 430 parternering engineering colleges under their wing, and thenumbers are growing steadily. There are growing cries to revamp Indian educationsystem, which focuses on learning by rote. This calls for various reforms includinghealthy interaction between industry and academia. The campus connect takes up thefollowing initiatives to fill the gap in the higher education sector in India.

• Seminars and faculty training for colleges: This will give an industry perspectiveto the faculty by assisting the faculty to introduce industry oriented courses.

• Aligning the college curriculum with industry requirements and working witheducational bodies for implementing it.

• Publishing Infosys courseware on the web: This will give students and facultyaccess to courseware designed by Infosys. The courseware they use to preparetheir new recruits for global ‘industry ready’ standards.

• Sabbatical for Professors: Professors can pursue areas of research interest withus, and also add to the intellectual content.

• Sponsorship of events in the tech-fests of the colleges

• Technical seminars by expert Infoscions in their campuses

• Allowing industry visits by students of the college to Infosys campuses

• The CC portal is an important element of this program. It serves severalpurposes like providing Infosys courseware, providing student projects andsabbatical projects, fostering discussion among the faculty/student/alumnithrough a discussion forum, providing a link to the Alumni Infoscions andhosting important news and events related to the program.

The Campus Connect (CC) initiative brings this well tested and successful trainingcourseware and methodology in the Generic Stream to the partnering colleges is widelyappreciated by industrial communities as well as by the academic institutions becauseof its mutual benefit prospects. The generic stream course which consists of foundationprogramme and soft skills programme will be taught directly by the partner collegefaculty, who are enabled by the Campus Connect team (Singh, 2006).

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Tata Consultancy Services has faculty development programme in 150 engineeringcolleges, Wipro founder Azim Prwemji has set aside some of his personal wealth forprimary education, Anil Agarwal, chief of Vedanta resources has committed US$1billion to a university. India’s Tata group and Aditya Birla group set up colleges andresearch institutions years ago as acts of social responsibility. Now other multinationalssuch as SAP, IBM and Cisco are designing curriculum and training faculty to meettheir needs.

However, the industry does not generally have a high opinion of academia’scapability; it is for the latter to take the initiative to break the ice. Some ice-breakinginitiatives as per Doraiswamy, (2005), are;

• Including pro-active and positive-minded professionals from industry andbusiness in syndicates and boards of study

• Using practicing professionals from industry as part-time guest faculty• Securing training/project attachments for senior students and research scholars

in industry• Exploiting contacts with alumni who are successful in industry and business• Offering management development courses for professionals in industry, as

this is a safe, inexpensive trial interaction for the latter• Offering inexpensive, if necessary free, consultancy to small and medium

industries which cannot afford expensive consultants.Wipro’s Academic Initiatives: This is an initiative to appoint Wipro BPO

Evangelists in premium colleges and universities. With this, the corporate seeks to bein contact with non-final year students and create an information pool for students ofthe Institutes to help them gain knowledge and perspective on our industry andorganization as a career option.It is a step towards bridging the gap between industryand Campus Institutes to create the right fitment in terms of meeting industryrequirements and fulfilling student aspirations & expectations.As a Wipro BPOEvangelist, one can look forward to an Industrial visit to the Wipro Campus and mostimportantly, exposure to and clarity of information and requirements of the job. Thiswould help avoid confusion and indecision in the final year during the campusplacement season, enabling one to make an informed decision. The Wipro BPOAcademic Excellence Award is to recognize and award the best talent of a College,Institute and University who has sustained very high academic performance levelsalso is a great motivator by the corporate to take higher education to greater heights.Another noteworthy measure adopted by Wipro Technologies is Mission10X. Mission10X till now, addressed only experienced faculty. New Entrants in the engineeringfaculty domain enter this field fresh from their engineering classes. To address theirneeds, Mission10X initiated a blended learning solution (AARAMBH) for new facultyin engineering colleges. This learning solution has the best combination of e-learning,self-learning and collaborative learning. Many faculty members from almost all theengineering departments of various colleges are already registered for Mission10XAARAMBH. These faculty members will learn more about a teacher’s role and


responsibilities, both inside and outside a classroom through e-learning process underthe guidance of their coach, Wipro’s well experienced faculty member andmission10xian. Their learning journey begins from discovering oneself and developingthe fundamental skills of a faculty and enables them understand how to deliver contentsuccessfully in the class. The higher education institutions can promote innovationsbased on strategic objectives and the concept of learning organization. The concept oflearning organization introduced by Senge (1992 I) and Senge (1992 II) is used torestructure the multidisciplinary faculties to achieve the innovative and synergiccombinations of degree programmes with a professional orientation.

UP SCALING IN THE QUALITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION: INVOLVEMENTOF CORPORATE SECTOR

It is high time that the educational institutions in India develop high credibility withthe industries. Gone are those days when industries were appointing the studentsbased only on their marks or grade. In today’s competitive world the problem orientedapproach to education is most important. Our education system has a hectic schedulecomprising of heavily loaded syllabus. The examination oriented approach makes thestudents competitive theoretically. In the job scenario, the application of theory is notvirtually possible and this leads to skill gap. Liberation from conformity to the normsnot at the cost of quality: Our educational system at the higher level should have lot ofautonomy in devising its learning objectives and learning contents so that they areable to provide practical education replete with innovative application techniques.The learning must happen in the colleges and academic institutions: The engineeringas well as management education should be directly based on the needs andrequirements of the industries so that the learning happens in the college itself and notin the training provided by the industries. Outdated modules and topics which haveno relevance in the contemporary competitive world should be replaced by the futuristicpractices. Reduce the time in the class room: Reduce the time in the class room andincrease the time for the field work is the great success mantra to orient the studentstowards the objective realities of the competitive world. The lecture mode of deliveryshould be used depending upon the requirement only. Involving students in projectwork, surveys, inspections, and audit are the important requirements to empowerthem to be more independent and self judging. The project work has become acompulsive ritual both for the faculty and the students and the students keep tryingsame or similar projects which are of zero practical utility either from the point ofview of the industry or from the point of view of research and development.

Research and innovation in areas of relevance: Research and innovation in areas ofrelevance for the economy and society, particularly by promoting close and productiveinteraction between industry and academics is a must for revamping the highereducational structure in our country. The topic of interest could be pertaining toenvironment, energy, strategy formulation for public and private enterprises, healthcare, information technology, biotechnology and resource management. Applicationof Systems approach: Just as the management appreciates the systems approach which

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combines the related as well as unrelated processes for effective decision making, thenature and quality of the education system does not depend upon how each part isperforming its best but how each part is interacting with each other so as to make thewhole system performance worthy. The management of the academic institutes shouldhave vision and mind set of application of new practices. The top rung of themanagement as well as the heads of the department should have wide exposure andexperience so that they are able to guide and motivate younger staff. The culture ofteam and relationship building becomes most important for creating innovativepractices and applied learning.

CONCLUSION

Gap between the needs of the industry and aspirations of higher education institutesin India is very large. Unless the there is a healthy reciprocal relationship between theindustrial sector, and the Institutions of higher learning nothing can be expected inbringing out the students who are readily employable. The empowerment must happenat the top level so that the managements energetically empower the faculty members,who in turn empower the students as well as management trainees. Empowermentand autonomy always brings in creativity and innovation, which leads to multiplicityof success. Extensive knowledge management practices must be in vogue for enablingthe intensification of educational programme. An open environment must be createdin the higher education institutions for research, knowledge sharing and intellectualgrowth. The institutions must understand the significance of collaborating with theindustries, which creates a win- win situation in the society. Investment on people iscrucial for taking advantage of the new opportunities and challenges. Education andskill development assumes importance in translating the advantage of demographicdividend. Higher resource allocation for education in public and private spending candrive the growth concurrently with skill advancement and generating employment inthe sunrise sectors. As of now the contribution from the IT and BPO sector in partneringwith the academic institutions is satisfactory. However the role of corporate sector ineducation has so far been marginal in sectors such as bio technology, plant research,forestry, fishing and agricultural sciences and most importantly manufacturing.Therefore this needs to be suitably enhanced in view of competing claims from allother relevant sectors in the growing economy.

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Stephen David (2009), Infosys’s Campus Connect: Skilled Effort, India Today Cover Story, http:// i n d i a t o d a y . i n t o d a y . i n / s i t e / S t o r y / 6 5 6 3 0 / C o v e r % 2 0 S t o r y /INFOSYS%27S+CAMPUS+CONNECT:+Skilled+Effort.html, accessed on 23rd feb 2010.

World Bank in its latest report, (April 2005), India and the Knowledge Economy; LeveragingStrength and Opportunities, (Report number 31267-IN).

World Bank, (2005), Economic Growth in the 1990s: Learning from a Decade of Reform,Washington DC: World Bank.

Documents

SWOT ANALYSIS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA: …serialsjournals.com/serialjournalmanager/pdf/1470916937.pdf · Even though we have a huge pool of educated youth, they are. ... Swot