Features

Impart Quality in Technical Education

Prof. Prem Vrat
Dec 2010
The role of quality in technical education in the context of globalisation of economy and emergence of knowledge society cannot be overlooked. Identifying India's basic strengths to emerge as a knowledge superpower if the quality of education in general and technical education in particular can be improved, Prof. Prem Vrat suggests that the TQM approach to enhance global employability of technical graduates can be adopted.

Technology is an important engine of development due to the predominant role it plays to enhance productivity and quality, reduce costs and response times. In the context ol globalisa tion of the economy, the underdeveloped and the develop ing world have to compete with the technologically advanced world, that has the advantage in using technology to enhance productivity, thereby getting a competitive advantage. The quality ot technical education, research and innovation, therelore, plays a vital role in providing such a technology driven competitive edge to a country.

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The emergence ot a knowledge driven economy and the role intellectual capital will play in enterprises in the future have also given an additional reason for countries to locus on tine improvement of quality of technical education. I he rapid quantitative growth ol technical education in terms ot number ot institutions and enrolments has led to a compromise on quality as a trade-oil with quantity. Since anything worth doing has quality implications, such a scenario is not sustain able tor success in the global and knouleduc-drivcn society.

Imbalances in Technical Education

Quality ot any system is possible only by striking an opti­mal' balance among various competing demands of any system. The same is true for quality of technical educa­tion An analysis ot the technical education scenario in the country reveals some imbalances that could affect the healthdl technical education,

(a) Regional imbalance

The spread of technical education suffers from regional imbalances. After privatisation ot technical edu cation, a large number of new private colleges appeared in a few' states while many stales that urgently needed development could not attract such private. A balanced growth of technical education in the country is desirable. Even within the same state, there are intrastate regional imbalances with Pareto's Law ot maldistribution leading to 'vital few and ' ignored many regions where these new colleges have emerged. While it is understandable is that certain locational advantages' will attract more private participation than others, yet the under-represented regions do need either government supported initiatives or Public-Private Partnership ( PPP) or the state offers a set ot packages as incentives to private academic investors to set up quality institutions in those regions. The con­cept of special knowledge /ones' and knowledge villages", developed by the state can be set up. These can attract private investments.

(b) Quality versus quantity imbalance

The near-exponential growth of numbers has eroded quality because of acute shortage of intellectual resources such as faculty, laboratory technicians and equipment, facilities, computational and other academic resources required to match the quantitative expansion.

(c) Imbalance in the form ot ownership

Much of growth has been in privately funded organi sations while investments by the state central govern­ment in creating new state funded colleges are scanty. State funding of technical education has not shown anv sign of increase while private investments have multiplied manifold.

(d) Imbalance in the fields
 
An analysis of branch wise enrolments will indicate that nearly 80 per cent enrolments are confined to 20 per cent branches. Not many enrolments have taken place in the core technological disciplines such as Electrical, Mechanical, Civil, Chemical, Textile, Agricultural, Metal lurgical, Aeronautical. Paper, Leather and other vitally needed technologies. Since Information Technology, for example, require fewer investments and have currently a good market, myopic perspectives will make them most attractive cash cows' whereas balanced technological development suffers a setback. This will cause serious skill shortages m these core branches of engineering.

(e) Imbalances between physical and intellectual resources

While many private colleges have created good physical infrastructure in buildings, offices, laboratories and hostels, there is an acute shortage of intellectual academic infrastructure mainly learning resources, laboratory facilities and the faculty as well as research laboratory technicians. Since technical educa­tion is knowledge business' rather than hospitality busi­ness', this mismatch of physical and intellectual capital is a cause for serious concern.

The unbalanced intellectual capital particularly the acute (acuity shortage is due to an unreasonable gap in the compensation packages the faculty receive as com­pared to what their counterparts get in industry. The age profile of the faculty is also not conducive to quality. One comes across either fresh graduates in engineering from these colleges or retired senior professors. A balanced age structure with strong middle cadre' is missing. As a result the balanced development of teaching and research is not taking place.

Imbalance in graduate and vocational education Most of the growth in technical education has been at the level of degree level engineering institutions, while 'diploma level" and vocational trades have not shown corresponding increase. Logically, the diploma-level and trade-level education and training have to match graduate level education in engineering but pri­vate investors have not found diploma or lower-level training an attractive investment proposition. Addition­ally, there is no integration of technical education from vocational to polytechnic to degree level and research level institutions. Integration from Industrial Training Institutes to Indian Institutes of Technology may be a worthwhile goal.

(g) Imbalances in training process

The locus ol technical education should be on devel­oping technical people who could contribute to the national development process and are globally employ­able. This calls lor a holistic development of personality profile with a judicious 'mix' ol theory, practice, industrial exposure, project-based learning; research training, co-curricular activities together with 'soft skills' such as professional and personal communication, teamwork, leadership development, managerial skills, time, project, quality, productivity, cost management training. Values such as ethics and concern for others, compassion far underprivileged, concern tor the society and the country are important dimensions in addition to passing sessional and university examinations. Involving industry in cur­riculum development is a serious yet missing dimension. Thus there is a serious imbalance of knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to improve global employability of our technical graduates. NASSC'OM has opined that the cur­rent immediate employability of IT graduates in India may be around 20-25 per cent ot those graduating. This needs to be seriously improved. Hence, global employa­bility enhancement of technical/engineering graduates and others needs a centre-stage focus in any strategy to improve the quality ot technical education in the country,

Emergence of Global Knowledge Economy

India was the country, which first conceived the concept of globalisation with 'Vasudheva Kutumbakmn'. Informa­tion technology and the electronic revolution has made this concept a reality. Result: the entire world has shrunk to a global village with interaction communication with anyone, anywhere, anytime. In the increasingly knowl­edge-driven economy and society we witness today, India has the core competency to become a knowledge super­power. We need to. therefore, interpret the new global opportunities in a new and generic form of IT that is Indian Talent' — rather than confine it to only Informa tion Technology'. This will bring about enormous opportunities to expand all kinds of technical talent to be developed to lead the knowledge society — provided they are globally employable immediately because socie­ty may not have the patience to wait and retrain. There is a paradigm shift in the global competition. If we do not develop such a globally-employable engineer/ technician someone else will. Thai someone else could be from any­where: China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. Hence, global trends in the knowledge society are an opportunity as well as a challenge or threat. If we focus on quality, it is an opportunity. It we do not, it is a threat because we would have missed the knowledge bus". Hence it is a crit­ical moment to introspect and take a vital decision to bal­ance the short-term objectives with the long-term objec­tives, to balance quantity with quality and remove the var ious kinds of imbalances listed in the previous section.

The Indian Advantage In Knowledge Era

On the positive and optimistic side of Indian core compe tency and inherent advantage in the emerging knowledge-society, we have the major strengths:

(a) Demographic idend: India is a youthful nation with more than 50 percent of its population less than 25 years of age or 65 per cent of population less than 35 years of age (which is a formal upper age limit of being called a youth in India). While the rest of developed world is already ageing Japan, Europe, America, Aus­tralia 10-15 years from now these would look towards India as a major potential supplier of various kinds of tal­ent provided — they are globally employable. This is a major demographic idend we can en-cash it we make investments in developing globally employable quality technical talent.

(b) Indians: intrinsically make a very creative, analyt­ic, innovative, curious and intelligent human resource. We are very strong on 'integrative complexity and can find innovative solutions to complex problems provided we find a purpose in it. In the era of knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), India otters great potential in R& D, software engineering, service process outsourcing due to easy availability of relatively inexpensive (by global stan­dards) talent who are sharp, creative and brilliant. Once again it is only possible if we nurture this talent to achieve high-quality training in engineering, technology, science and mathematics.

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(c)Our large population base can become a poten­tial talent pool for the world apart from meeting its own development needs. Instead of treating population as a liability, it could be an asset if we develop this talent for global employability. The outstanding talent pool we nurture could be a major intellectual product India could be known for the world over — provided we aim at devel­oping quality products.

(d) Engineering, management, pharmacy, architec­ture and other professional' education like medicine are much sought alter career options after 10+2 in India. Indian parents have the ambition and desire to give a quality professional education to their children to make them employable. They are willing to invest in their edu­cation even if they have to make personal sacrifices of their own comforts. Thus, there is almost an assured sup­ply ol talented students to quality institutions in technical education. This is a very positive demand environment,

(e) India was known for academic excellence in the past, which attracted scholars to visit India in quest of knowledge — Nalanda University is an illustrious exam-ple. In current limes global acceptability of our elite institutions such as IITs/IIMs and IISC. indicates that if we decide to nurture excellence, we can do it and the entire
world would recognise that excellence. Hence, there is a tremendous scope, potential and opportunity for build­ing large numbers of quality institutions by replicating the experience of globally renowned institutions,

Faculty Shortage: A Key Constraint

Faculty constitutes the single-most critical success factor in pursuit of academic excellence. Regrettably, the best brains in the society arc not opting for teaching and research as their preferred choice in career options is engineering and technology. Salary differentials of unrea­sonable magnitude, less attractive social esteem to teach­ing and research, low investment in R&D and non-chal­lenging academic ambience in colleges are, perhaps, responsible for the talent not interested in teaching and research. It is the 'teachers who do magic in the class' to inspire, involve and transform even seemingly ordinary students into outstanding scholars. A role model teacher has to be our embodiment of academic brilliance, inspir­ing communication skill and a role model in value sys­tems and ethics to lead by setting examples.
 
In the context of this challenge we need to give the highest priority to overcome this problem. As a nation, we need to give the highest priority to investments in a new kind of ERP (Education, Research and Planning), as all these require intellectual resource inputs. We need to proactively nurture intellectual talent by providing right kind of academic ambience, empowerment, work culture, autonomy with accountability and psychic income' in addition to reasonable financial compensation packages.
Faculty development in technical education should become a priority in quality enhancement process. Acad­emic leadership and institutional ownership must strive towards developing their faculty to enable them to moti­vate, inspire, involve and transform their students in a 'holistic' sense to make them globally employable.

Quality Enhancement Strategies in Technical Education: A Case of UPTU

What was earlier known as UP Technical University (UPTU) (which now has been bifurcated into two) has more than 600 institutions under its overall affiliating role in engineering, technology architecture, management, pharmacy, hotel management and catering technology as per AICTE norms. Its spread is over the entire geograph­ic domain of the state of UP and has students enrolments more than 300,000 in it. It thus presents a formidable challenge to deliver quality education in such a large sys­tem - geographically and numerically. However it is vital that in order to emerge as a brand, the university has to focus on quality as its prime goal. In the process of enhancing quality, UPTU had attempted to make use of methods and technologies of Industrial Engineering and Total Quality Management (TQM). A brief outline of quality initiatives taken by UPTU using IF: techniques is presented along with future directions of its strategic interventions in supporting and nurturing its institutions.
The key enablers of academic excellence are vision­ary and committed academic leadership, academic resources, academic processes that facilitate and are effi­cient, effective, flexible transparent, participative, technol­ogy driven and are accountable empathizing with all stakeholders.

Some of the quality enhancement strategics and ini­tiatives taken are listed as follows:

(1) Extensive sensitisational institutions/colleges par­ticularly the top management and academic leadership on the importance of quality improvement, employability enhancement and faculty development as well as need to be customer (student and industry) oriented in their approach for deliver)- of technical education.

(2) Networking with industry — particularly IT indus­try such as Intel, IBM, Microsoft for the cause of quality enhancement through MOL's and establishment of labo­ratories and arranging ot faculty development workshops. Involving industry in project guidance such as 'Project nvite ol IBM has led to good results.

(3) Mentorship of various colleges by industry through NASSCOM.

(4) Initiating major curriculum review and examina-ion process to make teaching-learning process learner rentric, learning centric, flexible, holistic and cutting lown response time in declaring results, minimising :rrors eventually aiming to making examination process a lix-sigma process with extensive use of technology.

(5) Implementing teacher-fellowship programmes to ttract talented teachers to the profession enabling them p pursue full time Ph.D in one of the state funded col-leges at attractive terms.

(6) Using University website as an effective instrument of interacting with the students, faculty and the institution in declaration ol results, faculty data bases information sharing and revealing relative perform­ance of the institutions through result analysis and academic rankings. I Ins transparent web-based communication is producing expected quality related improvements due to greater trans­parency and healthy competition among colleges.

(7) Developed UP Technical Univer­sity Academic Excellence Award Model adapting the business excellence models to academic context. Figure shows a How chart of the structure of the Academic Excellence Award Model. A self contained brochure which identified the detailed factors and sub-factors of the 10 factor model, comprising five enablers and five results indicators, has been developed and exten­sive sensitization workshops held in various zones ot the UPTU to encourage participation. This model will help them identify parameters that lead to excellence, do intro­spection through self-assessment, get feedback through peer-assessment and benchmark with role model institu­tions. The concept of "Star Performer's Circle' will enable better institutions to interact with UPTU and act as its think-tank and contribute to the process of creating more institutions with academic excellence.

The initiative has had a profound impact on sensitiza­tion of colleges about the need for Quality education and it has substantially improved the quality in many institu­tions. It is, therefore, advocated that the quality issue should be a centrestage issue in the technical education system it India is to leverage its demographic idend, otherwise it might become a demographic liability.
 
(The writer is former Vice Chancellor, UP Technical University, Lucknow and former Director. Ill. Roorkee) Source: Quality India
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