Ideal Learning Spaces for 21st Century in Higher Education

1. People learn best when:

a. They are or they have been motivated to learn

b. They are in an environment conducive to learning which means:

1. The place of learning is dynamic, congenial and "smell" of the place encourages you to    learn. Learning Spaces in the 21st century will be conducive to all kinds of learning in a dynamic sort of manner. Moving from teacher centric to student centric. From Hierarchical Individual to Hierarchical Collective and as and when required to Distributed Individual and Distributed Collective. For this to happen not only spaces have to be dynamic and re configurable, these also have to have connectivity not only with the environment but also with community shared spaces like libraries, museums, sports complexes and parks etc. with in or outside the institute in the city.

2. I am not getting into the details of management, data collection for need of new learning spaces, financial closures and all that though these are important.  Instead I am on a journey to "imagine, what is the physical and digital space where you would experience and do this type of learning?" I bring in my sixty years of experience so far as a student, researcher, teacher, manager and educationist to base my ideas on.

Some thoughts on this are:

I am mostly talking about learning spaces in higher education from undergraduate to post graduate levels of learning. That's where my experience has been so far and what I think will be my learning theory for the future, from now onwards to say 50 years from now?

a. I do believe that the learning spaces for adults and young students kind of mutate and usable across learners age.

b. Its like a huge joint family or community in a big house hold space. As and when required one can utilize any space in the house. One can join the elders and take part in their conversation (learning!), one can get into the playing space of the young ones thus learning and making them learn. One can go into the spaces like living rooms to stretch and share ideas with others and one also has his or her own space - be it a bed room or study room or a corner in the courtyard / balcony / deck or just your own space under a tree for reflection, learning by yourself.

c. Learning vision for me is life long learning and "learning How to Learn". How this can be achieved with present and future infrastructure.  Shantiniketan of Tagore was designed so that students learn, classes happen, discussion takes place san boundaries with in Shantiniketan. Learning environment was in kind of dynamic equilibrium with nature. 

Taxila  (more than 2500 years ago) was a huge learning place and still does not qualify as a university because there were no standardized degrees. Students used to learn with teachers in the teachers quarters. There was no fee for learning except “Guru Dakshina” or a gift for Guru at the end of the learning. The period of learning could be up to eight years - after the age of 12 or 14 - depending on the progress of the student. Though learning was teacher centric but the progress of learning was student centric.

Introduction

A learning space should be able to motivate learners and promote learning as an activity, support collaborative as well as formal practice, provide a personalized and inclusive environment, and be flexible in the face of changing needs. The part technology plays in achieving these aims is an important consideration too.

Learning Spaces in the 21st century will be conducive to all kinds of learning in a dynamic sort of manner. These spaces will also be integrated in a seamless manner with ICT and other education specific software and hard ware required for learning under all the four quadrants. For this to happen not only spaces have to be dynamic and re configurable, these also have to have connectivity not only with the environment but also with community shared spaces like libraries, museums, sports complexes and parks etc.

Having said that we can not ignore the learning spaces already with us since centuries and these are also evolving mostly to accommodate hierarchical individual hierarchical collective learning. For these spaces to be relevant in the present century we need to first understand the student teacher, student-student, teacher-teacher and community and environment interaction needs not only to enhance the learning but also take care of the physical, cognitive, social, cultural and emotional interaction. The learning spaces design should enhance these experiences towards optimum learning and overall development.

                                                        Learning Quadrants

 A Simple Frame Work for developing 21st Century Learning Environments will start with the  following points:

1.The briefing:

My theory of dynamic spaces and encompassing all the quadrants (hierarchical individual, hierarchical collective, distributed individual, distributed collective) will have a major impact on what the Learning Spaces in the 21st century will be. These spaces should be conducive to all kinds of learning in a dynamic sort of manner. These spaces will also be integrated in a seamless manner with ICT and other education specific software and hard ware required for learning under all the four quadrants. For this to happen not only spaces have to be dynamic and re configurable, these also have to have connectivity with intranet and internet. Spaces will be more effective if nature is allowed to intrude into the spaces in a manner that enhances the feeling of being one with the nature. It could be achieved through natural light, seeing out / seeing in through the two-way or one-way see through glass panels. Sound needs to be zoned as per the requirement of the learning space. The community shared spaces like libraries, museums, sports complexes and parks etc. need to be braced as learning spaces as well.

2. The design phase is a highly consultative process that includes academics likely to teach in the facility, and enables confirmation of the brief. In this case we are presupposing that my theory of learning is the way to go in higher education.

3. Educational technology to enhance teaching and learning should be considered and incorporated in both the briefing and design phases.

ICT and many of the collaborative technology in class room, in campus and off campus to be taken into consideration.

4. The resultant design is the product of a partnership between the facility manager, the architect, the information technology manager and academics teaching in the space. First make a prototype of each space. There will be a prototype like a classroom catering to the anticipated pedagogy and Learning Commons and other spaces as per the learning quadrants requirements and human factors requirement.

5. Professional development should be implemented to allow teachers to discover the teaching and learning potential of the facility, and adapt their practice if necessary.

6. The institution should publicise the new facility as a means of promoting good teaching and learning practice, across the institution/university. 

21^st Century Learning Spaces for World

Most of the world population (>50%) and hence the learners live in India, China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Brazil and other developing countries.  Learning Spaces for higher education in these countries cannot be the replica of the learning spaces designed for the developed world. However some of the core design requirements catering to the teacher centric and student centric learning will however remain the same.

Core Design Requirements:

We are assuming that in the present institutions running the higher education courses such as colleges, professional institutes and universities have the space designed for hierarchical individual and in some cases hierarchical collective pedagogy. There will be a central library, departmental libraries. There are sports and cafeteria facilities and also some facilities for big assemblies and performing arts, such as an auditorium. Even in the new institutes we tend to have the learning spaces designed on the basis of old blue prints for class rooms, seminar rooms, dinning facilities, student living spaces etc. This arises from the fact that pedagogy more or less remains the same revolving around hierarchical individual. However with Internet access through mobile and tablets even in the small towns and villages knowledge and information is accessible with ease. Resources like MIT Open Course Ware, edX and other MOOCs have brought the paradigm shift in the ways of learning for learners as well as teachers. Focus has shifted from “What “, to “How” to learn. Learning interaction also is shifting to digital interaction albeit slowly. Present day  students are more equipped to “enhance “ their learning in the classroom and beyond rather than getting the basics of subjects from the teacher. Teacher role is evolving towards “guide on the side” from the “sage on the stage” so far. In nutshell we are moving towards pedagogy and modes of learning encompassing all the four quadrants we have been exploring in the course.

For encompassing all the four modes of learning in a frugal institute – majority of the institutions in the developing countries and third world are resources and cash strapped - our prerequisites will be:

1.     Motivation for learning.

Students in the developing world have more hunger for learning and education because that’s the only way they can uplift themselves  

and their families economically and socially.

2.     Laws of the land.

This is a tough one. Some govt. body or the other for standardization and “quality” adherence controls most of the higher educational institutions. The rules are framed more in terms of the size of the class rooms, land titles, number of teachers, syllabi, evaluation of the performance by way of external exams and so on. And this kind of regime is an impediment to adopting new modes of learning and learning environments. However things are changing; with economic progress and compulsion of demography. India for example has to harness her demographic advantage where 65% of the population today is below 35 years of age. To provide skill at such a scale with speed we need to push learning with all the learning modes in our new pedagogy.

3. Resources to provide state of the art ICT and learning infrastructure cannot match the developed countries even in the next couple of decades. Taking cognisance of these facts we suggest the following:

Classroom / Learning Centre:

Classroom:

A typical classroom toady has a teacher standing on the raised platform, white board at the back, students sitting in rows facing the teacher. By providing tables and chairs with castor wheels we can reconfigure this space as and when required almost as a subset of learning space.

A Conventional Classroom – from Learning Space Design with an Inclusive Planning Process Promotes User Engagement Dec 2009 caption

Big classrooms on the ground floors with the windows opening out to the nature can be easily utilised as with some modifications as the Learning Centres. A Learning Centre will have space, with table and chairs placed like boardroom for discussion, presentation. There will be spaces for small group studies and meetings.   There will be facility for  “google hangouts” or Skype conferences with participation from any where in the world or just the project team from the institute from where ever they are. Location independent feature of collaborative learning makes learning easy and affects optimum output.  The  “hangouts” can be projected on a TV screen on the wall. There will be corners with side and centre tables for private or small group studies. Students can be allowed to have coffee or tea into the learning centre.

Refurbished Classroom as General Purpose Learning Centre caption

Refurbished Classroom - flexible chairs and tables arrangement with embedded technologies caption

Redesigned and refurbished classroom as we can see provides many different kind of learning spaces, space for small group work (formal and informal). Small group workspaces where the interaction among the learners is more informal and open helps in developing the physical, cognitive, social, cultural and emotional interaction among the learners. A boardroom like space and the serious learning projects being done there develops confidence; emotional and physical. Helps in sharpening the cognitive skills by observation and quick challenges one has to tackle in real time.

Teaching Spaces Model

The above are reconfigurable spaces with a movable partition. We have boardroom like arrangement for teacher led learning, there are small group working space, individual workspaces, discussion and presentation space and fixed work stations on the network. We have Wi-Fi, USB port connectivity, mobile white boards and TV screens hooked to the laptop displays for presentations

Some institutions with budget and pristine surroundings can go for Learning Commons opening out to the nature with glass walls. Furniture and other facilities in these will be movable except some spaces along the opaque walls for computer workstations, charging sockets, printer and photocopier etc.

Some dynamically reconfigurable classrooms too can have one way see through glass walls for others from outside have a feel of pedagogy inside the classroom.

Laboratories and Vocational Spaces

These spaces except for the furniture lay out and provisions for individual projects may not be required to change much. With some fixed work benches, power points and equipment and facilities as per the subject (for example a chemistry lab may need water faucets and heating elements) and spaces with suitable furniture for doing inter institutional project may be provided.

Library and Learning Commons

This is one space, which can act as a catalyst for bringing in the change we need in the institutions for ushering in the learning as per the new pedagogy, learning modes, evolving ICT and education technology for facilitating group, interactive and collaborative learning not only with in the institution but across institutions around the world. In most of the universities library is one central big building and is designed to impress. Most of the journals now being subscribed by the libraries are in digital form and available online. Many books are also available and we envisage all of the books in the future will also be available in digital form. Already books available online are in millions. So the shelf space of the libraries will mostly be occupied by the old paper books and important libraries like Alexandria in Egypt will have original manuscripts for research and exhibition.

Its time that main library function be that of the depository of the resources and library staff to be available for guidance to use the old and as well as new digital resources of the library. Some area as a learner enters the library should be functioning as a Learning Common. This space depending on the size available can house in a fluid design manner the following:

In the above figure a Learning Common is depicted with all the activities it can support for student learning, social interaction and other creative activities. Picture is taken from taken from JISCs Design Spaces for Effective Learning A Guide to 21^st Century learning Space Design.

In the above Learning Common design we see that the space is on the way to library but provides many stand alone learning and other activities too. We can envisage most of the services and spaces students will need to learn and show case their talent is available. It’s also a social area providing physical and connectivity to virtual space.

Learning Street or Street

This is one space, which can be developed around a long and broad corridor of an institute building. Generally the location of such a space in an institution is not only central but may connect various parts of the building and its activities. More like a spinal cord in our body.

This space can act as formal / informal idea cubation space, various small groups meetings for multidisciplinary learning and work and other dropping in if interested. Individuals and groups can work on their personal interest projects in art, science, engineering or management, which can be further worked upon for Proof of Concept in the respective labs or idea lab.

We can very well see that the spaces discussed above provide immense opportunities and act as catalysts for  overall development of the learners (student / teachers) in a seamless manner 

Bond University Street with Learning Spaces

with focus on team work, experimenting with new ideas in their respective learning areas and beyond.

Technology Support for Learning

The usage and utility of Learning commons changes with the student calendar and evolving technologies such as

Mobile learning

Tablet PCs,
Smart phones,  Wireless keyboards, 
Digital cameras.

Connected learning

Wired computing
Wireless networks Wireless-enabled laptops/tablet PCs

Visual and interactive learning

Video conferencing, Video streaming, Image projection, Interactive whiteboards, Voting devices

Supported learning

Assistive technologies Accessible USB ports Audio-visual prompts Video recording facilities TV screen information points

Summary and Conclusions

In this report we have discussed the new generation learning spaces embedded with the affordable and available technologies. Most of the devices required for learning like smart phones, tablets and laptops are carried by the students of higher education in their backpack almost in any part of the world. Most of the college going students carry smart phone with data connectivity foe apps like Facebook. Given the connectivity and some education software in redesigned leaning spaces , we are good to take the 21^st Century learning experience to most of the higher education learners in the world.

This Always Works - but more for senior citizens

As kids we like to do only what takes our fancy or what interests us. But as we grow older the list of must do things keeps becoming larger and larger. Parents instructing do this and don’t do that. Behave like this or you will get rebuke. It’s impossible to work out why we as kids are not allowed to mix with certain interesting people and why the home work from KG onward is so boring and still needs to be finished before the end of the day. The compromises go on and on from our early school to primary, middle, high school and on to the university. Along the way we also pick up our favorites – people, things, subjects, places, and relations in the family, books, smiles, flowers, poems and celebrities. However all these will have to be subservient to our demands of life. Such as job – we are all not lucky to have a vocation of our choice -, boss, colleagues and associates, neighbors and so on. For a big part of our life we keep struggling to reach for what we like to do within the constraints of what we have to do.  Most of us are struggling with this dynamics of life and are happy with some kind of sub optimal equilibrium. In many cases we change our attitude and feel convinced that what we have is the best for us.

Then comes a stage in life, where the constraints start disappearing – your job is no longer  there ( you have superannuated), professional life stresses are gone, you have steady though less income, it’s you and your wife only again in the house may be for the first time or after a long time. Now this is the time you must go for a kill – try 10 out of 10 for your happiness. Fish out the things you liked to do but could not or did not find time to do. It could be occasionally reading that story book, listening to the poetry, old songs and gazals. Start posting on to the blog you created years back, find old friends and communicate with them. Spend time with the friends and visit your children.

Do push your self a bit and form a monthly objective a little beyond yourself. But do not try the uncharted territoty. I for one never wanted to be hands on but am good at ideation. Now I indulge in the activities which allow me to do contemplation, ideation and problem solving in the academic and research. At 60 plus, as always, I still like to push my intellectual faculty but have no longer the demand of  going to office, pushing others for deadlines, leaving kids to school, reaching for work in time, preparing and pushing myself for activities pushed on to me …

I do what I am doing right now, writing this post, read  others blogs and comment on those, initiate or take part in Higher Education Forum, an online Google group, go for walks with my wife, improve my cooking skills and share the results with my children and grand children. Watch old movies together. Eating out is less but still I want to see the world – my wife willing! However embarking on journeys to explore India and beyond is still to planned though. Till then TLC and other channels will do!

Overall much happier than I was any time in my life so far.

HRD’s Task Force suggests Measures to Curb Faculty Shortage - A Comment

Well to the best of my understanding and experience this recommendation is half baked. GOI or our education system just cannot become world class by employing 3 lakh teachers and from where? 

Already our government and society has downgraded the profession to such an extent that the mediocre or still lower in the class will opt for teaching. Look at the engineering colleges and majority of the business schools, engineers and MBA who cannot get the "proper" job join teaching. What’s our hope? Students learning suffer, employers suffer and we as nation suffer for the lack of quality professionals and work force and work culture. 

Do we have the political will and patience to try Finland model. Started in 1970s, Finland education system from primary to university is being considered as best in the world. Other following are Singapore, South Korea and Israel. Teachers in Finland are trusted by the system and society. The formal / informal evaluation is done by the teachers and taken as such. However to know the learning standards a random sample of students are evaluated and report on the state of learning published for further objective setting. There are no accreditations or grading in Finland. Overall - rather a superset of objectives is set by consensus - and institutions try to reach these objectives by the means available to them but complete freedom on methodology. 

Teachers in Finland are paid well, have freedom to innovate and research and apply those ideas for student learning. Do we have the will and intention even to try on these lines? If done consistently and persistently, in twenty years we will not have governance and deliverables problems we are facing now. 

Start with creating an eco system to produce teachers who want to be teachers, are capable of doing research and can innovate. Can take majority of the students in class to their peak learning capacity and are trusted by the society and system.

Refer to the transcript of an interview with Finnish Education Expert

http://www.learningfirst.org/teachers-we-trust-interview-finnish-education-expert-reijo-laukkanen

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