It's not PPT or Infographics - It's the Story Telling Which Impacts Max

Story goes like this, in a conference, one speaker did away with the Power Point by saying that it has "neither the power nor the point". I along with many others could see the point. With out referring to text or numbers on the screen he went on to share the story of his topic,with proper build up into the subject, lessons and inferences drawn and closed his narrative with moral of the story rather than conclusions.

We have always been communicating through story telling, as kids with our friends, as grownups in our homes with siblings and parents. Outside with our friends in school. One on one with our colleagues. However when we move on to higher education, specially MBA, we learn to get more " focused" on numbers, graphs, charts and ppts with text and graphics. So much so that bright MBA students start thinking through these tools. What it does? Well these are more like props to help us deliver better. For a moment, imagine, if there are half a dozen props for an actor to deliver his dialogue and do a scene, can he really make it good? I feel even the best one in the world will not be able to engage her audience. That's why at the most a single prop used well, may help in enhancing the narrative. But more props will be distraction from the main theme.

Sit back and think, while speaking in a conf., a board meeting, making a pitch or selling an innovation if again and again speaker refers to the props on the screen, the point may not stick, story may not impact and the job may remain half done. On the other hand, increase the effectiveness of your message and contents by providing the skin of a story and share it as a story. Listeners will listen better, remember better and carry the message better. The posive tradeoffs are the ones which we keep striving for in our professional life.

An experiment was done, where the same information was shared oveor email, social networking site, plain mail and also the colleagues sharing one on one. The result, the last, where colleagues shared one on one, was remembered better and proved more effective.

Most of the MBA pass outs, even from the best of schools, abandon story telling in favour of ppts and excel sheets. My preference for sharing my thought process or a formal topic through story telling, at times elicited comments from the hardened MBAs, that who will listen to her stories, with out realising that only stories are listened to rest are skipped over or skimmed over.

Try this age old communication skill. Still not convinced - just visit the blog dastangoiblogspot.com

Comment on - Business Standard - Out of business - published on May 21, 2011

Ref.: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/outbusiness/436264/

Kalpana, thanks for the wealth of information. However certain core issues are not addressed - pertaining to higher education in our country, including business education.

There is always a differential in the quality of the institutes. Now how that differential is getting understood and addressed by the various stake holders is important. In this the first important issue is reliable information and its validation from the independent agencies. We did not have one so far. If AICTE, NBA and NAAC would have done their job well, there would not have been so many schools of dubious quality which have set up their shops across India. Surely the responsible authorities chose not to do their job in spirit, instead stuck only to letters. Opportunity was exploited by unscrupulous operators including the “sweet meat vendors”. Expectations in our society are sky rocketing, where as aspirations are low. This leads to fulfilling your expectations of becoming a manager, having a good job on the promises of the sellers and students and their parents pay for their lack of reality check and availability of validated information.

If a school is of grade which is say less than 50% on the scale then that school has to prepare itself to address the market for their product with all its limitations. Refer my blog Zindginama and the post http://zindginama.blogspot.com/2011/05/on-business-schools-in-india.html

All is not lost, given a reliable grading system which is simple and objective and does not last for 5 years or 10 years but only for a year can be a catalyst for the higher education institutions in India to improve quality in easy to do baby steps. CRISIL has started its education grading for business schools, it’s time that business schools, universities, and other stake holders - students, employers, faculty and funding agencies refer to the CRISIL grading of the institutions before taking a decision on associating with the school.

On Business Schools in India

G S Singh*, Hon. Prof. Guru Nanak Dev University, Advisor CRISIL

Abstract

In this article we look at the snap shot of business school in India. We try to discern a broad pattern in the business schools across India and with limited exposure across the various categories of business schools discuss the functioning of these schools. We also look at the likely reasons behind the existence of the most of the schools that do not make it to the any list of business schools in India but seem to be “profitable”.  We arrive at some pointers for the “categories” of schools being discussed. We are of the view that implementation under the frame work evolved around these pointers, will create value addition towards governance, learning out comes and quality. This frame work will enable business schools across categories and across India to make positive contribution towards training the requisite managers better suited for their roles and lifelong learning.

Introduction:

There are 3700 business schools in India. In a city like Pune – there are 400 MBA and PGDM programmes being offered. Given such a concentration and numbers, the competition for students and faculty is really fierce for the majority of the business schools.

There are not enough Academically Qualified (AQ) faculties to service these institutions. And the situation of finding the Director with stipulated requisite qualifications, to head an institute, is still worse.

Majority of the business schools are happy to fill the seats and somehow hold the classes, run courses and act like placement agencies. But the plethora of new institutes all across India has dried up the catchment areas for students for relatively “well running” institutes as well. For example many of the aspirants from the B and C class towns may settle for the school closer to their place of residence rather than travelling the way to metros, Pune or National Capital Region and get admitted to an below average school – high on promises.

A typical business school having AICTE approval, may comply to the norms, like land, class rooms, computer lab, student to faculty ratio but is likely to be headed / promoted by people who are neither true academicians nor professionally qualified. One gets the impression that most of the promoters may not be into professional education for the cause of education and public good.

Some of the well intentioned provisions, like minority status, can be misused for admissions by unscrupulous promoters and management of the business schools. We found that many of the minority status institutes are able to stay viable because of control on admitting majority of the students. Older institutes say in existence for ten years or more, are considered stable and are able to stay afloat and remain “profitable”.

However, most of the institutes are feeling the heat of competition and over supply, and many of these in spite the infrastructure they have put in are at a loss to figure out, how to start on the quality journey to attract students, faculty and recruiters.

Premise

Any product or service has to be measured from the point of view of an end user. We need to see the quality of our output in greater details and in its final form before we even start evolving a plan of the higher education institute. For this let’s take for example the business school and its deliverable products such as the students, services – meaning consultancy, research and thought leadership.

What a business school graduate should be able to deliver and achieve in the organization he / she joins?  But as such it’s not a finished product for ages to come which will keep on performing on the same lines as though it’s a well manufactured product from a six sigma factory. It’s an intelligent human being with expected value addition by the business school so that the learning and development becomes a self propelling proposition beyond the business school education. Let’s enlist these required value additions:

·         At the lowest level – the market demands that a business school graduate should be able to perform the day to day function of the industry / corporate she joins.

·         These functions could be:

·   Basics of sales and marketing, basics of accounting, proficiency in business communication, report writing and basic business plan, balance sheet and team skills.

·          The above skill- set capabilities if imparted properly to the students; will make them perform as good field force with avenues to become senior managers in the organization as they deliver.

·         Most of the 3700 business schools in India with little more clarity in governance and in vision and mission, can gear themselves up for the above kind of value adds for the students.

·         Presently the students from these schools may command salaries from Rs.1.5 lac  per annum to Rs.4.0  lac per annum.

·         These business schools should consistently try to beef up their learning infrastructure and teaching resources by focusing on the enhancing and delivering the value additions for the roles they are preparing the students for. For this the business school should also try to bring in more exposure of business through guest faculties and if possible summer internship programme so that the product offered proves useful and has decent coefficient of learning.

Proliferation of the business schools

The Schools in the lowest category

·         These business schools can play on the aspirations of the students who have been poor in studies, poor in exposure and felt to have missed the bus already. Most of these students hail from the tier 3 and blow towns and villages. Parents also aspire for their children to do an MBA and become a manager.

·         As mentioned above – the role for these students, coming out of a tier two or good tier three business schools, could be a field role like a senior sales person, an accounts executive or an assistant HR executive for many years to begin with. Exception to the above over a period of time, can be brought in by the schools where the learning is of better quality, team building and group learning is encouraged , pedagogy is dynamic and there is continual effort  to enrich the teaching resources both as PQ and AQs.

Tier Three and Two Category Business Schools

·         This category could be that the schools are already in existence for 5 years or more. Some could be there for more than 10 years. They have what we call more recall coefficient and most of them are working hard to maintain their place among the second and third tier schools and also competing with the schools which are comparatively new but have the benefit of promoters and governing councils having experience of academics, education administration and industry with in India and abroad. The old timers may have the directors from academia who might have had a stint in regulatory bodies like AICTE, UGC, Universities and others. The new ones are taking the faster and already tested path with some contextualization to be ahead in the race and the many of the older ones are suffering because of the baggage carried by the top management. There is another set of schools which boasts great infrastructure – wifi campus, ac class rooms, ac library and spend a lot on advertising but are short on excellent faculty resources and at times on scruples. However these schools build their brands by advertising blitz and tall claims. They also secure some understanding with lesser known schools abroad and thus claim to be world class.

       Challenges and Opportunities

·         Most of our hopes and frustrations may get validated by tier two and three set of schools. Challenge is to convert every one of these schools into the best category schools in India and hence bring in more and more competitive excellence. Many of the schools in spite of having all the infrastructure and stable faculty have hit the limitation of inertial momentum, where in they are not able to show better results year after year and are struggling to get the better quality students, thus are likely to lose steam with every passing year.

·         The biggest problem is when many of these schools, remain in their silos and the management attitude is, to show themselves as running the best school but not work on making their school one of the best. These schools manage to get all the mandatory accreditation and also comply to the regulatory requirements, so that they can run their courses unhindered. Students and parents do get taken in by the approvals secured by the business schools without realizing that these accreditation and approvals are actually conformity to the minimum they should have in the scale.

·   Quality of teaching and learning in many of these schools, though better than the lowest rung schools but may have stopped evolving because of complacency.

·    Environment and zeal to change for the better are generally conspicuous by their absence in these schools.

A Framework for Achieving Continual Excellence

How do we go about bringing in quality improvement and culture of learning?

Vision and Mission

·         Quality of purpose and quality for purpose needs to be over encompassing part of the frame work for any business school. A vision and mission evolved with respect to quality of purpose and its review and validation by all the stake holders should be part of the accepted process. The continual improvement in the overall quality of governance is one of the outcome of frame work driven by vision and mission.

Faculty - Develop or Parish

·         Good faculty for higher education in India is just not available. Problem has financial and societal history and absence of good quality research in our university system has compounded the problem beyond any short term solution. We are taking our own time to attract the faculty of Indian origin from US and other universities. IFMR institute of management’s efforts are worth emulating in this regard. Have in-house quality research jointly with world class institutions abroad and get the faculty by offering research opportunities and other incentives.

·         Another laudable effort at a substantial cost is being undertaken by IBS Hyderabad. Full time research-scholars are engaged with stipend double that of many institutes offering in India. A pre doctoral immersion assignment abroad with an external guide, after 2 to 3 years into research is funded by the institute. It’s a programme designed to show very good results over long term with output as faculty, capable of producing quality research output. A programme designed on the above lines can benefit all the institutions with a vision to become world class.

·         Exposure to the best practices, by way of interaction and networking is an established practice all around the world. However, in India, this exercise seems to be done more in letters than spirit. The practice is limited to the short trips abroad by the top management. These are more of photo sessions to be published in the school magazine rather than a serious effort on meaning full engagement with the better schools abroad. Most of the times MoUs signed during these visits are more for student’s jaunts abroad than a value added exchange.

·         A well thought out road map and programme for faculty development with incentives and challenges is required to be in place.

·         Business schools need to lay emphasis on faculty exchange and student exchange programmes with the other schools with in India and abroad.

·          Innovation in collaborative teaching, research incentives and faculty development can lead to a vibrant learning environment. However most of the second and third rung schools are hardly pursuing these ideas and practices. Collaboration in teaching and research at intra and inter school level and sharing of best practices should be taken as a serious goal.

·         The schools need to focus on serious and engaging activities within and without. Some of these could be:

·   KRA for the faculty in improving teaching and learning in their respective subject areas and beyond. In case the syllabus is set by the university or AICTE kind of body, the KRA will focus on learning methodology and enhancement to learning in the class room and beyond. In case of an autonomous institute it would also mean to frequently update the courses and course ware after discussing with the peers and other stake holders.

Industry Interaction and collaboration

Industry interaction and interface needs very innovative approach if the school does not have location advantage. A cluster or collaborative approach among the schools with no or very little location advantage can act as a catalyst.

·         ICT technology can facilitate the interaction without really making the corporate seniors to travel. We have seen initial impact of the leverage of ICT at IIM Shillong, the corporate seniors are more willing to interact with the students and faculty because of the no pain of travel involved. The ICT infrastructure can also make the students learning much more extensive and teaching more enhanced and advanced.

Research

·         Research is one activity which has a very visible impact towards making the environment vibrant and conducive to learning. It’s a part of KRA for an institute to understand the local, national and international problems and issues and address these by research, problem solving and continual interaction and involvement.

1.       It will also help institute to think big and get involved in grand challenges,  local and regional problem solutions.

2.       Collaborative teaching and research should be evolved as an institutional policy.

Towards Sustainable Management

·         It’s a buzz word as well as a very timely intervention required  in business teaching and training approach. Sustainable management, forming the core of curriculum, in every subject taught and covered at the business schools, will go a long way in creating young global manager with sustainability of social, environmental and geographical resources. ASPEN Institute has been doing a good work and has developed a matrix and framework to prepare for the sustainability criteria, and learning.

With basics in place and processes and systems implemented, to validate and fine tune the vision and mission as institutes go forward, we can really bring in lot of value add for all the stake holders. Majority of the schools out of 3700 will not only get benefitted by a continual and neutral evaluation but also will be able to contribute a lot towards nation building efforts.

The case of top rung business schools has to be studied and analyzed w.r.t different parameters.  To our mind a top rung business school in existence for four decades, getting the best students in the country and comparatively more autonomous than the many top rung business schools running as university departments – has to definitely move into the international league on all the parameters rather than being top in some and lopsided in others. The systems, processes and good governance has to be in place by default for these schools. Where these schools should be excelling are in the following areas:

a.       A vibrant vision and mission – owned by every constituent of the school, be it top management / promoters – actually they should be evolving and driving it, be it faculty, administration, students – . Students getting selected will be as per their fitment to the culture and areas of excellence of the school.

b.      Attracting and keeping the best of faculty. Most of the top schools are in some way or the other govt. funded and controlled. Rules of appointment to faculty positions are more like govt. service rules. The security of service is more or less granted and incentive for consulting is more monetary than academic. Work environment though better than many business schools can be elevated by good governance to an exciting and quality research output level.

c.       A vibrant collaborative programme with the similar and better schools in the world.

       A continual show casing of world class research, consultancy, thought leadership, collaborative development of teaching and research resources, students value add beyond themselves and           attitude to make a grand and real impact in the business, society and the world.

d.      Powerful and innovative drivers need to be adopted to create and promote blue ocean industries, IPRs and entrepreneurs. The product of the schools and the faculty of the school – see themselves as problem solvers par excellence. The school produces world managers with inclusive learning and education. For example the course work will not be only management but will also have liberal arts, science and technology and other creative subject areas. Idea is that problems of the future will need solutions approaches coming from our understanding of philosophy, history, social sciences and tools of other fields, like life sciences, physical sciences, to solve.

e.      Many top schools in India are stand alone and that could be a big constraint in innovation. To quote  Lord Sainsbury's  definition, the innovation is "the successful exploitation of new ideas." They don't stop with the invention. They turn their inspirations into reality. Entrepreneurs  can fit this definition to quite an extent . But for ideas and innovation to happen, a vibrant campus across field - engineering, sciences, liberal arts - interaction and researched is a necessary condition. Why MITs, Stanford and campuses like UC Berkley lead in scientific and social entrepreneurs, because they leverage the developments across fields, innovations and managerial talents to converge to a successful outcome. Having said that this kind of campus culture also helps in germinating the other components and culture for development – e.g. Silicon Valley, where you have almost best support system at hand to start a start up, making it to a big enterprise and able to get noticed and so on.

f.        Schools will have to make a beginning as thought leaders in their chosen field – which in turn will be dictated and evolved by vision and mission. These schools need to come out with newer line of thinking and curriculum. For example teaching failure and how it leads to success, how vision and mission can be the DNA of an enterprise, scenario building research can geminate the seeds of designing products and companies of the future. To give an example, why not have a course on entrepreneurship and start up where the students scan and understand the research and product ideas from across the res. Labs in the campus or beyond, join hands with the IPR owners and come out with a feasible plan for a start up and take it to execution.

g.       Visiting faculty, Students , collaborative teaching and research with other schools around the world and with in the country – again this choice has to be dictated by the vision and mission – will not only enhance the standing of the schools but will also help best of the talents contributing towards the achievements of the school.  

Another area where the top schools can show the way is on boosting productivity of higher education in India by not only utilizing their resources optimally. By utilizing efficient and innovative management practices, the business school can bring down the cost of a degree substantially with out compromising on the quality.  Some of the areas in managing the higher education, where innovation and efficiency could be brought in are:

Using technology support to impart the instructions efficiently.  Higher education is all about enhancing ones learning. It makes sense that technology and on line resources be used to acquire pre requisite understanding and learning and a mentor or a teacher enhances that learning in the class room. Many institutes are already doing this in India but most of these are in the private sector. These institutes are also able to deliver quality learning by using more of part time quality faculty as mentors.

Using Shared resources. The biggest pain point in Management education, if we ask any administrator or director, is the non-availability of quality faculty. As mentioned in this paper above some of the institutes have embarked upon a costly and long term programme to develop quality faculty in house. However there is still a lot of scope available to leverage the quality faculty with in an institution and across institutions. Many schools ask their star faculty to teach, utilizing the biggest class room available. This practice is old, at CALTECH, physics lecture series by Feynman used to be conducted in the auditorium. At technical university of Delft, Netherlands, the undergraduate physics classes by Ted Young were conducted in a dome to 600 students. Subsequently the assignments are overseen by the graduate teaching assistants. With ICT infrastructure in place, some institutions are already increasing teaching delivery of their star faculties by putting big video screens in the multiple class rooms for a lecture. The future could be that a reknowned star faculty lectures are streamlined over the net in a syndicated manner, thus leveraging the best of teaching across the globe with economy of scale.

Improving efficiency in core support services*. Like any other enterprise, efficiency improvent by leaner processes in service functions like management, student services, auxiliary power supplies and air conditioning, purchasing can reduce the cost substantially. There are some private schools in India taking these services very seriously with continual cost efficiency. However this cost reduction as of now may not be reducing the cost of the degree for the students.

Other functions such as hostel services, mess and cafeteria services, logistics and guest house services can also be managed innovatively and may generate revenues and profits to bring the cost of a degree.

A small study by Mackenzie* has shown that the cost efficiency could be of the order of 25%.

Mandated GER is to be double for higher education from present 14% to 30% by 2020 ( HRD minister in Jaipur – April 2011). The resources required to achieve the above are not within the reach of the govt. However a 25% average reduction in the cost of a degree can help increase the GER by 25% with minimal extra provisions. Institutes need to publish the cost of degree and the best practices. Accreditation also can bring cost of degree as an important parameter and funding agencies will have a raison d'être  to fund efficient and quality institutes.

Conclusions: In this paper we have summarized the state of business education in India briefly and  tried to categorize the institutions and suggested some best practices being followed and to be followed. We have enumerated a frame work / road map to lift the quality of the schools in each category. For the top schools we have suggested some inputs to be considered. We have also mentioned that the top schools can take a lead to bring in efficiency in productivity revolution, so much a need of the hour for increasing the GER from 14 to 20% with constrained resources.

*Boosting productivity in US higher education, APRIL 2011, Adam Cota, Kartik Jayaram, and Martha C. A. Laboissière. http://e.mckinseyquarterly.com/15a3c74c1layfousiblvux3aaaaaaatxjrnhcjvo5i4yaaaaa

*View expressed in the article are personal views of the author

Rethinking NCHER (National Commission on Higher Education and Research) India

G S Singh

Founder Member, Higher Education Forum and Hon. Prof. GUD University, Amritsar, India.

Abstract

In this paper , the author, after having studied the draft NCHER bill and trying to put in clause by clause suggests, realized that whatever one may do cannot put in the soul into NCHER draft bones and flesh. The draft is introduced more as making one central authority assume the charge of almost everything in higher education, as the multicity of authorities did not work for the cause of education. What’s the cause of higher education and what’s the raison d'être for creating an authority like NCHER and what this “authority” should be taking upon itself so that it does not completely subsume the role of university and institution heads and their academic and administrative authority, which is ultimately responsible for delivering and nurturing the higher education and research across India, beyond themselves. Here is a small attempt to rethink the NCHER draft bill and suggest some premises based on which a new NCHER can be evolved.

Introduction

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, in his convocation address to the University of Allahabad in 1947, thus summed up the basic objectives of the university and its role in national life:
A university stands for humanism, for tolerance, for reason, for the adventure of ideas and for the search of truth. It stands for the onward march of the human race towards even higher objectives. If the universities discharge their duties adequately, then it is well with the nation and the people. Quoted from: A Larger Sense of Purpose: Chapter 1 of Higher Education and Society, by Harold T. Shapiro 

Building the Premise

To pause once in a while to adjust our sails and correct our course requires leadership in higher education at each level which imbibes the trait of “not for ourselves alone”.
To quote Shapiro, Universities serve society as both a responsive servant and a thoughtful critic. Thus, although the modern research university must serve society by providing the educational and other programs in high demand, the university must also raise questions that society does not want to ask and generate new ideas that help invent the future, at times even "pushing" society toward it. In this latter respect the contemporary research university is a prototypical liberal institution, always looking for a better set of arrangements within a wide spectrum of our individual and community lives. 
The two roles of a university 1) serve society by providing the educational and other programs in high demand and 2) raise questions that society does not want to ask and generate new ideas that help invent the future, at times even "pushing" society toward it.
Both of these roles are embedded in Nehru’s definition of a university albeit at a more sublime manner.
The author feel that there will not be any disagreement in agreeing to the above two roles of a university or of an Higher Institution. In that respect any authority like NCHER should have its main function in acting as a facilitator and catalyst towards performing these roles.

Present NCHER Bill

How the creation of NCHER and whatever is contained in the draft bill will help the universities performing the two above roles is a question we need to ask and figure out whether the authors of this draft bill have the same focus or its more of creating a Super Body to regulate and orchestrate the functioning of Higher Education institutions as per some “standard norms and processes” framed by NCHER.
On the other hand what we need to address here is just not making these institutions function as per the rules of NCHER, but allow them to function and govern as education institutions which are essentially public trusts to serve society as both a responsive servant and a thoughtful critic. 
NCHER draft bill goes into great detail about the selection, creation and functioning of the commission. It also details the powers of the commission. In the suggested draft, very little is left for the universities and institutes to differentiate themselves and have the opportunity to allow diversity of scholarship, thought process, teaching and learning, research and development in chosen direction to flourish as responsive servants to the society and also as thoughtful critic. 

Rethinking the Premise

With these major roles for our Higher Education Institutions in mind, we need to think afresh as to how we can achieve this without further complicating the issues. Generally the tendency in govt. is that if a system is not producing results because of the faulty execution and the people with personal agenda at the helm of affairs, instead of clearing the mess, a new system is sought to be created. The recent notification by AICTE regarding management institutions is a glaring example of putting more controls in place without making an attempt to understand the cause of failure and hence overhauling the system and processes to deliver better and nurture the cause of Higher Education.
We need to look at the core requirements and then the core enablers to fulfill those requirements. More autocratic and monolith a structure, more difficult it will become to get all the stake holders involved in furthering the cause of education. And equally worry some fact is that in the process we lose the best people, thus encouraging mediocrity over meritocracy.
NCHER in any form should be a body more with moral authority – rather than executive authority. It should author the overall guidelines for the Higher Education in India. It should ascertain that only the best of the people are attracted to the field of Higher Education. For example it can invite people of eminence to its portal but then we will be having a “grey” think tank past prime of their productive years. It’s observed over a period of time, that a noble laureate is least productive after getting the prize. Generally a person is most productive between 40 and 60 years of age. Then we have the problem here – our beurocracy will be hard put to find out these people, who may be working on grand challenge problems, producing world class work, but still remain “unknown” as they have not got any international accolade. Major problem to tackle is how to get these people on board NCHER and into our Higher Education System.
Form an inclusive body of scholars, scientists and researchers in engineering, sciences, technology, sociology, management sciences, comparative study of religion, history and so on. This group should be an international group. Let them pose the problem of Higher Education in India to themselves and put themselves away for one month and come out with draft approach- addressing the following:

1.        What is the function and role of a university? (Yash Pal report may have some inputs here)

2.        If we agree on two roles of the university as mentioned above, then how these two roles can be realized by the university, in the context of:

a.      time dependency- changing social, economic and political world scenario

b.     What it is that will remain constant in these roles.
 What kind of persons will be able to lead these institutions?  

                                          

3.        Do the scenario building exercise for various types of institutions; say 5 years, 10 years and 15 years from now.

a.      Come out with the funding requirement, mode of funding and role of researchers, faculty and     the institutions in raising and utilizing the resources.

b.     What should be the guidelines for intellectual capital creation and ownership? Traditionally, for example – Copy Right of books absolutely rests with the author but IPR should not go the same way as the institutional resources – intellectual and material, built over years are extensively used in creating these IPRs. It’s also very important for keeping our future safe that public trust institutions should hold a substantial portion of the Intellectual Capital being created.

4.        The above will also provide pointers to how demand driven and how beyond ourselves kind of teaching, research and thought process should be evolved. Going forward, a draft frame work could guide the universities and Higher Education Institutions in fulfilling their roles.

5.        In doing all this – extreme caution and care has to be exercised that we encourage rather than taking away the heterogeneous character of our institutes. This will require that instead of a regulatory and controlling authority, NCHER functions as a guiding body for universities and universities in turn act as guiding bodies for institutes and departments with them. 

6.        Conclave also needs to figure out the way and means to curb the malpractices and also clean the existing system. For that it may be a good idea to take the leaf from financial regulators and allow neutral agencies to grade the present institutes and universities. NCHER can fix the criteria for merging the weaker with strong, to close the very weak ones or make them shift their focus to vocational education. 

7.        The selection of the Head of the Institutions from a registry sounds a good idea but is fraught with loosing good people or not even getting them interested, who may like the assurance and offerings in a much quicker time frame. It may be a good idea to have a search committee with international membership to do the needful. Search committee itself needs to be of the people who are active in the field and may know the highly eligible people from their work. 

Conclusion

NCHER will be able to serve better if it understands the role of a university/Institution of higher learning and then sits down to prepare a document for its own and as well as the institutes / university guideline. Higher education institutions should be allowed to function and flourish as fountain head of professional and liberal art education, centre of excellence, innovation, research, professional education and also act as thought leaders for the society and nation as a whole.
giansunder.singh@gmail.com 

Enhancing Productivity and GER in Higher Education

Dr. G S Singh, Advisor CRISIL, Hon. Prof. Guru Nanak Dev University

Introduction
HRD minister in India is emphasizing in press or otherwise very regularly that India needs to double GER gross enrolment ratio) for higher education from present 14% to 30% by 2020 (HRD minister in Jaipur – April 2011). Already the number of university we have and more institutions coming up face the uphill task to in attracting and recruiting suitable faculty. Even the infrastructure resources required to achieve the above are not within the reach of the govt. What we feel as per the observations and inferences in this paper, a 25% average reduction in the cost of a degree is attainable and can help increase the GER by 25% with minimal extra provisions. Institutes and universities need to publish the cost of degree and the best practices. Accreditation or grading process also can consider the cost of a degree as an important parameter and funding agencies will have a raison the etre to fund efficient and quality institutes.

Lead by Example
The top schools, institutions and universities in India can show the way on boosting productivity of higher education in India by utilizing their resources optimally. This can be achieved by evolving and implementing efficient and innovative management practices. Business schools like IIMs and other top schools can come out with a framework, so its efficacy by in house implementation. Show casing of a working scheme to bring down the cost of a degree substantially without compromising on the quality will have a domino effect and other institutes of higher education can implement the framework as per their needs and requirements.

Immediate areas for improvement, efficiency and innovation
Some of the areas in managing the higher education, where innovation and efficiency could be brought in are:

Using technology support to impart the instructions efficiently. Higher education is all about enhancing ones learning. It makes sense that technology and on line resources be used to acquire pre requisite understanding and learning and a mentor or a teacher enhances that learning in the class room. Many institutes are already doing this in India but most of these are in the private sector. These institutes are also able to deliver quality learning by using more of part time quality faculty as mentors.

Using Shared resources. The biggest pain point in higher education, if we ask any administrator or director, is the non-availability of quality faculty. However, we have observed that, some of the institutes have embarked upon a costly and long term programme to develop quality faculty in house. There is still a lot of scope available to leverage the quality faculty with in an institution and across institutions. Many schools ask their star faculty to teach, utilizing the biggest class room available. This practice is old, at CALTECH, physics lecture series by Feynman used to be conducted in the auditorium. At technical university of Delft, Netherlands, the undergraduate physics classes by Ted Young were conducted in a dome to 600 students. Subsequently the assignments are overseen by the graduate teaching assistants. With ICT infrastructure in place, some institutions are already increasing teaching delivery of their star faculties by putting big video screens in the multiple class rooms for a lecture. The future could be that a renowned star faculty lectures are streamed over the net in a syndicated manner, thus leveraging the best of teaching across the globe with economy of scale.

Improving efficiency in core support services*. Like any other enterprise, efficiency improvement by leaner processes, in service functions like management, student services, auxiliary power supplies and air conditioning, purchasing can reduce the cost substantially. There are some private schools in India taking these services very seriously with continual cost efficiency. However this cost reduction as of now may not be reducing the cost of the degree for the students as majority of the schools services level are already minimal!
Other functions such as hostel services, mess and cafeteria services, logistics and guest house services can also be managed innovatively and may generate revenues and profits to bring the cost of a degree.
A small study by Mackenzie* has shown that the cost efficiency could be of the order of 25%.
*Boosting productivity in US higher education, APRIL 2011, Adam Cota, Kartik Jayaram, and Martha C. A. Laboissière. http://e.mckinseyquarterly.com/15a3c74c1layfousiblvux3aaaaaaatxjrnhcjvo5i4yaaaaa

Birthday

Birthday comes once a year. The young boy Mothu, living with his mother, grandfather and grandmother would start waiting for his next birth day as soon as the present one was over. He remembers his last birthday, when a week before the day an old priest (Bhai ji) arrived from the village, the room on the ground floor, actually the only livable room on the ground floor was set up for some occasion it seems. Mothus mother dusted the room, moved out the four chairs and the cot to the big aangan ( a space for 'nothings' and passage to the living quarters' )at the back of the house and arranged in a corner there into a pile. The cow, Biro was tethered in another corner. A flight of stairs lead to the first floor. The aangan was the largest space at the back of the house. It also had a big mezzanine running along two sides accessible by a make shift bamboo steps. There were 15 steps to the first floor, the living quarters of the family. The stairs led to an open kitchen. Mothu generally spent his time in the room left of the kitchen, where his mother and grandmother were having their cots or palangs. The other room was grandpa's room with his palang, a small table and an account book. Grandpa was always at this table, lit by a small electric lamp, before going to bed. In his very steady hand, he could pen the complete months household accounts in a single page and move on to the next in the following month. At the end of the month he would declare to all, the balance sheet of the month. The profit (savings) or loss generally varied between Rs. 10 to 30. Most of the year he was able to balance his books in green. The moment there was over expenditure, the next month will find the drastic cut in all the sundry expenses.

Mothu loved to go to the roof of the house. It had a small covering in the corner of the roof. He would watch the birds flying around above his head while he lay on the bed in the morning. He would join the birds - the small black sparrows - in their flight and fly with them in circles over and over again. The noises from the kitchen, grandpa making curry paste, grandma churning the yoghurt for the butter and mother fetching water from the community tap in the street and pouring into the storage tank, a recess in the kitchen wall, gave Mothu a complete activity picture down stairs. Suddenly from this background he will hear – Mothuuuuu, come down, time for the school. He wanted to savor the days when he was not to leave his birds and the sky, get out of the bed for going to school! But he could not remember the days when he was young enough and was not enrolled in the school. It seems like all good times this period also lasted for a short while in Mothu's life and he was not able to calendar it precisely. But now any good thing he remembers very well and tries to experience the same by keeping the events stored in his imagination. Though sometimes he cheated, as he found that what he was remembering actually got changed for the better in two or three repeat runs in his memory. May be his mind like a computer, was enhancing and rearranging the contents of his memory, for a better effect.

He ran down the stairs straight to the ground floor room and found a big cotton carpet and the old man from the village having his break fast of a big tumbler of milk, paranthas and freshly churned butter. Mothu, said Sat Sri Akal to everybody and was immediately pushed by his mother to the bathing place, a corner near the water outlet in grandpa's room, quickly scrubbed, dried up and put on fresh clothes. In the winter of Feb. in north of India, this was not his idea of starting birthday festivities. His grandpa and Bhaiji were ready. All three walked through the streets of the city for a mile and reached Mr. Prem Singh's house. Prem Singh was a relative who was seen only on occasions like this, when we needed to carry the holy book from his house to our place, for open paath or readings. These were performed by Bhai ji over one week culminating into singing of hymns and many guests attending that occasion. Grandpa placed the book over his head and Mothu was asked to sprinkle water in front till all three reached home. In the middle of the room the book was placed on a special stand, looking more like a child's sleeping place with all the small cushions and scarves. Bhai ji started chanting shabad and sat down to start the open paath to continue till Mothu's birthday.

It was a new experience for Mothu, whole day Bhai ji was sitting and reading incomprehensibly the words from the big book. Mothu will peep into the paath room and hear a sound as though many bees were singing and dancing. He was strictly told to pay his obedience first by touching his forehead to the ground, in front of the book. There was a white cloth flowing out in front, from the covers of the open book. There were flowers put there and a small tray on the ground on the while sheet to put in the offerings of money. On the right on a small side table, a brass vessel had some sweets as prasad. After bowing the head in front of the book and a clockwise round around the holy book, everyone got a little prasad. Mothu observed that as soon as an elderly visitor from the neighborhood came, Bhai ji will start doing the paath in a very clear and loud voice. These people will always put in the plate of offerings few coins while bowing their head in front of the holy book. Generally there will be a sizeable crowd of five to ten people, mostly women in the afternoon for an hr or so. Women had time at hand to spare at those hrs and had this function at Mothu's place to utilize the time and feel good.

A day before Mothu’s birthday, the guests from neighboring villages and also from the far neighbor hood in the town stated arriving. Arrangements were being made for the guests to stay. All the palangs were carried to the roof top. The wall to wall mattresses gave the look of two big palangs to these two rooms, where dozens of people could sleep. Grandpa’s aunt also arrived from the village, and nephew came from another village with his son. There were guests from grandma's side; sister's son arrived with a potli of hot gur, favorite of Mothu's mother. Mithai maker came from the bazaar with his two assistants and started digging the ground for oven in the neighbor’s house on the small vacant space where Mothu and other children used to play every evening. This evening, all his friends were busy being part of the birthday preparations and did not miss their playing space usurped by the halwai his assistants and cooking utensils. Mothu had never seen her mother being so busy in organizing and cooking food for so many guests. Halwai was preparing only for the lunch the next day. As soon as it was dark, Mothu was insisting to have dinner saying that he is feeling asleep. Mother understood that he needs an excuse to play on the big bed organized on the floor for guests to sleep. Once he got the permission he managed to sneak in his friend on the "bed" and started rolling from one end to another. The excitement brought out strange noises and sounds from their throats. And soon the house hold felt disturbed by the cries of these beasts they were asked to close the eyes and sleep. A sure thrashing was spared for the sake of birthday boy having fun.

Next morning, after a thorough bath and scrub and set new of clothes on, the family priest arrived. And as soon as she saw him under the morning sun falling from the window, immediately commanded evil spirits to go away and let the best be there from now on wards for this young boy. She was amply rewarded by Mothu's grand ma. All the guests and Mohu's family of four assembled in the paath room below. Mothu sat in his mother’s lap and was given gifts, mainly the currency notes of Rs. 2 or 1. Mothu's Rakhi sister from the street was also sitting besides them. A group of two Bhai ji's came with Mr. Pritam Singh and his son and after paying their respects sat on the left side of the holy book. Mothu was watching that they had brought big bundles wrapped in cloth with them. First a harmonium came out, then a pair of drums. Immediately hymns singing began and for the next one hr, Mothu found almost everybody except his friends with closed eyes listening to the songs. Already a big vessel of piping hot halwa - kadah Prasad - covered under white muslin was resting on the table. Its aroma was disturbing the kids and many of them were salivating and trying to keep their urge to splurge under control. Kirtan lasted an hr. Bhai ji, Mothu knew, was already on the last page of the book. An ardaas or prayer was done by one of the singer Bhai ji. Grandpa gave him a piece of paper and while doing the ardaas he looked at the paper many times and pronounced Mothu's long school name. Everybody, he found was looking at him benignantly. Mothu had a feeling - never had so far - of importance being in the eyes of so many people.

Prasad was distributed and Langer was served. Mothu and other children were enjoying serving the guests sitting on the floor in the room where paath was for the last one week. The book had already been carried on the head by grandpa on the first floor and kept with maryada (respectful ritual)in one of the almirahs. By evening all the guests were gone, grandpa was back with his account book entering all the expenses and what ever gifts came. Bhai ji was staying over for the night and was already gone the next day before Mothu woke up. He kept lying on the bed and could here only the old sounds of his family. He was quiet and felt sad on the absence of noises and hum drum of the last one week. He was wondering when this will happen again, may be next birthday!

Mothu grew up to become a scientist and worked in a govt lab 1000 miles away from his small town. That birthday celebration got never repeated again. May be the profit and loss balance in grandpa’s book got out of control that month and put a stop to this kind of extravaganza. However, his every birthday till he was 12 years old used to bring a surprise celebration for him. Some birthdays were with the feast of the specialties by his mother, hot puris, kabuli gram, dahi bhalla with special red sweet sauce and kaddu bhaji. She will call Mothu's friends and goad them to have their fill. His rakhi sister and her mother always used to be around as guests and helping hands. The food was distributed to the neighbors in the street. All the neighbors had relative tags; ladies were chachis (aunts) to Mothu. Mothu used to go to four more close neighbors’ houses with the covered plates of full meal and in turn will get their blessings on his birthday. Another year it will be lady sangeet on the eve of his birthday, again a festive like atmosphere with Mothu at the centre of universe.

Today young Mothu wonders, for a child like Mothu, juxtaposed between three generations, may be he had all his insecurity set aside because of the importance, blessings and variety celebration in his formative years birthdays.

A Morning Kite and Lifelong Thread

‘Its 6.30 in the morning. Sun is almost up. All the other family members – grandpa, bibi (mother) and grandma have left their beds’. Mothu saw their folded bedding on the wooden cots. They generally got up and left the ‘chatt’- the flat roof of a house, used by most of the families, in the neighborhood to sleeps in open during the summers from April to July – an hour ago before Mothu opened his eyes to the day. He was listening to the noises from the kitchen below, half of a room on the first floor of the house. The front half was open to the sky and served as landing space for the stairs going down up to the ground floor.

The sound of pounding of onions, ginger and garlic in a small stone kundi was the daily wake up call for Mothu. Grandpa would sit on the landing and do this job after his bath and getting ready to go for the work. Grandma must be stirring the set boiled milk in an earthen pot for butter. Occasionally he could hear the water being poured into the tank made in a wall in the kitchen towards the far end – area used for cooking. There was also a chimney on the other side for the smoke from the coal fired small angithi (furnace) on the other side. His mother must be fetching water from the municipal tap in the street, just a few houses away. Mothu’s house was the dead end of the street of twenty houses.

Suddenly from the corner of his eyes he saw a big kite flying overhead. ‘Where is the processed thread I got yesterday?’ Mothu was relieved that the 25 yards of thread he got yesterday from his kite seller and the kite was in the barsaati – a small covered part of the roof to store the beddings and cots and also to sleep under in case of sudden showers. There was a strong urge to fly his kite as well. Mothu got from his bed, looked around and saw quite a few kites already in the sky. This was the beginning of the summer vacation and kids were already up before time – they were always late for getting up during normal school days – and starting making best of the vacation.

Mothu however had a problem, he had strict instructions not to fly kite except in the evening. Its only on this condition, grandma had relented half an hour of pestering to give him 5 annas (one rupee had 16 annas and each anna 4 paise) to buy his manjha and the kite. He had very little time to put his skills to test, the big kite was already up for the last 15 minutes and sun was about to cover the whole roof quickly. Already there were two calls for him to get up and come down. Mothu took out his flute and stated blowing in to it keeping his hands free for the kite, already made ready to fly. Noise from the flute convinced his mother down stairs that he was awake and just trying to figure out playing flute.

His small kite was up in the sky in no time with only 25 yards of thread to ward off any aggressive move from another kite. Rest of the thread had no powdered glass stuck with glue on it and would snap off in a single sweep. Mothu was thinking fast, his mouth blowing into the flute, eyes fixed on the big kite which has noticed the small intruder in its space and his arms and hands maneuvering his own kite so that the first touch between the two is on his manjha. Of course he could see that the other kite was flying on complete manjha which Mothu could ill afford. The moment of his test seem to be coming closer. He could see from the corner of his eye that the 'big' had noticed him and decided to do away with him first before going forward with other conquests. Now Mothu was nervous. He was not sure of getting another allowance for the next one week at least to get his kite and manjha. If he looses his kite he will be sitting quiet in the evenings on the roof of his house watching other kids all around enjoying their kites in the sky. But he also knew that in his class – he completed eight years in the Feb. – he was good at kites. Then also the fact that he could make his grandmother give him an other allowance, may be with a small reprimand.

Thus the decision was made in Mothus head and he stopped avoiding the big kite. Next moment it swooped on Mothu's kite was already positioned for the contact at manjha. The touch of two different threads instantly sent a sensation through Mothu’s fingers holding the thread. The only reflex in this case and situation was to pull the thread fast and with force. Mothu did as it was planned and wired in his system. He knew that any delay – even fraction of a second – is fatal in this combat.

Suddenly Mothu found the sensation of two rubbing threads no more passing on to his finger. And he looked up, there was only his kite above, the 'big' floating direction less away from his kite and going down. There was sudden commotion all around. 'Mothu has won, and he humbled Gaama. Bravo Mothu' came the cry from the kids around. Gaama ! Mothu looked back. Few roofs away, the biggest kite flier known in the city was gathering the thread and as soon as he saw Mothu’s diminutive figure standing on his cot he gave him a symbolic salute and said Bravo.

Many years later Mothu, a senior researcher in a Govt. Lab, 1000 miles way from his small town, can still feel the reverberations of that applause and a very gracious way of accepting defeat by a champion from a small child. This exhilarating feeling of ten minutes and the whole scenario of that morning has etched in Mothu’s memory. In the middle of his life now, Mothu finds himself playing the scene again and again when he feels miserable and down. These moments never failed him. He has always come out better, little less depressed, little more prepared to face a difficult situation in his life.

This small incident made this young boy a hero in the neighborhood. Gaama came with his friends to Mothu’s house the same evening and congratulated Mothu on his triumph in the morning. Appreciated his kite flying skills. He left 500 yards of manjha for Mothu as a gift. In a way Gaama expanded the opportunity space of Mothu in kite flying 20 times!

Treasure the exhilarating moments of life and play these again and again to propel one out of sticky situations.