Abstract –
Higher Education in India has seen massive
growth in recent years. On one hand, this growth promises to
produce more skilled individuals to fulfill needs of ever growing
Indian economy and on the other hand it poses a huge
challenge for the governing bodies like UGC, AICTE and others
to maintain or improve the quality of education.
An integrated Higher Education Service System (HESS) at a
national level can be one of the key ICT initiatives to help India
become a provider of world-class education. This system
can provide deep visibility to governing bodies at a university
and student level to analyze their performance and hence gear
up for future requirements. HESS will enable various stakeholders
to leverage the improved operational efficiency in
various key processes like grants, utilization certificates, approval
processes, feedback mechanism etc. With deeper visibility
and increased operational efficiency the Indian Higher
Education System would be bolstered not only to satisfy the
needs of students by making them more employable but also
combat possible competition from foreign universities.
Index Terms –
e-governance, Higher Education Service System,
Integrated System.
I. INTRODUCTION
India has seen a lot of change in its educational system
since independence. The government has shown great
commitment in terms of funds for educational sector over
many years. These funds have created many world-class
institutions like IITs, IIMs etc. but these kinds of institutes
are few in number. Pressing need of an emerging India is
increased number of high quality institutions/universities.
India has one of the largest Higher Education Systems in
the world1. The higher education system, which caters to
needs of approximately 99.54 lacs of students, definitely
deserves applause for its commendable work so far. Despite
having the largest Higher Education System, the quality of
education, in general, cannot be claimed to be the best.
Providing education to such a massive student base brings
with it a number of challenges both at operational and strategic
level as described below:
A. Operational Challenges
1. Duplication of procedures
According to a survey conducted by FICCI, most of the
promoters of institutions/universities feel that multiplicity
of regulating agencies like University Grant Commission
(UGC), All India Council for Technical Education
(AICTE), Medical Council of India, Central Council of
Indian Medicine, etc. leads to duplication of procedures
causing immense loss of time and resources.
Ideally, a single window should exist for approval process.
The university/institute should be asked to submit all
the documents at once online for approvals. Various regulating
agencies should then internally coordinate to fetch
the documents/details from that common pool. This would
greatly reduce the unnecessary duplication of work for University.
2. Long funding cycles
The approval cycle for funds tends to be long due to verification
and various performance analysis of the University
being funded. Performance analysis consumes lot of time
and resource. In general the time from request for funds to
disbursement of funds is approximately seven months.
The difference between time of request for fund and disbursement
of fund leaves much to forecasting and guesswork.
If this difference can be reduced then the expenditure
can be planned better. It will not only improve the utilization
rate of grants but also prevent institute from making an
unplanned and hasty decision for utilizing the remaining
em>amount.
3. Long Approval Processes
There are various accrediting bodies like NAAC, NBA
etc. to maintain and improve the quality of education in a
University/Institute. These bodies take approximately nine
months for the accreditation process to be complete.
The process of approval and accreditation should be
faster and preferably paperless for Universities to get the
rating quickly. If the process is short then the frequency for
accreditation for a University can be more i.e. a university
that has been rated ‘A’ in one year can continue to be
graded every year or every 2 year hence, keeping itself upto-
date with the norms and rules set by governing bodies.
This also will help students who seek admission based on
rankings/ratings of the colleges.
4. Fraudulent Colleges
Despite a great control of governing bodies in Higher
Education, there are many colleges and students who get
involved in fraudulent activities. This is a cause of concern
various recruiters/other universities. It also is a negative
indicator of Indian Higher Education System for various
MNCs, present in the country, who take this news back to
their countries.
The verification of any college or student’s qualification
should be possible from a single source. This would help
large Universities/Corporate keep a check on students trying
to seek admission/job with forged certificates.
B. Strategic Challenges
1. Deteriorating Quality of Education
India has some of the great Institutes and Universities but
the number of employable students is very less. According
to NASSCOM, of 3 million graduates and post-graduates
added to the workforce in India every year only 25% of
technical and 10-15% of non-technical graduates are employable
by growing IT and ITES sector.
In today’s environment it is essential for the governing
bodies to keep a track of Universities based on monthly
basis. There should be a metric to assess the performance of
a University on an overall basis and on course basis. Some
of the criteria can be the progression of course during a
specified period, number of students attending them etc.
Based on these metrics the University/College can be asked
to explain the reason for good/bad performance. To achieve
all this there should be consolidated information about each
university/college to track their performance versus grants
allocated.
2. Outdated Curriculum
A major issue in Higher Education today is obsolete and
irrelevant course curriculum [2]. Today, the demand of industry
is far from the learning that a student has gone
through. In fast growing economy the preference will always
be given to a person who understands the industry
practices. Based on this criterion of little practical knowledge,
many graduates are losing out on possible job opportunities
for various MNCs inside and outside the country.
The need today is to analyze the trend being followed by
Institutions of Excellence. Also, by seeing how the students
are selecting their courses a trend can be obtained about the
movement of preferences among students. This kind of
analysis can help governing bodies determine the academic
plan and course curriculum for the lesser performing universities.
3. Unemployed Students
It would be a mistake to assume that smaller colleges/
universities would not have bright or employable students.
There have been many cases where bright students
from lesser-known colleges do not even get an opportunity
to showcase his/her potential.
It should be a duty of governing bodies to provide these
bright students some opportunities. This can be achieved if
industry interaction is improved through a common medium.
The governing bodies should provide a common platform
for best performing students and industry seeking employees
to interact for jobs, projects, research work etc. If a
governing body is involved in this process then the industry
will see it as a credible platform to recruit.
II. E-GOVERNANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION
ICT has played a major role in reducing operational inefficiency
and improving decision-making in many areas of
governance. An integrated “Higher Education Service System”
is one such concept that can empower the governing
bodies to administer the progress of the education plan in
the whole country and serve various stakeholders in a much
better manner.
Higher Education Service System is conceptualized to be
an integrated system having interfaces with all the Universities.
The data required for this system will be as following:
A. Inputs required for the system
1. Universities/Colleges
All the Universities and Colleges in India should have an
interface with UGC by registering themselves with HESS.
Each university will have access to the system, where it
would have to furnish the following details on a periodic
(quarterly/monthly) basis:
- Details of fund utilization
- Details of all the registered students including their
grades, attendance etc.
- Courses offered and curriculum
- Progress of course on a periodic basis
- Details of academic/research project where human
resource is required
2. Governing Bodies
All the governing bodies including UGC, AICTE, MCI
(Medical Council of India) etc. should also be registered
with the system (HESS). Each body will have separate access
to the system. These bodies will have to furnish following
details to the system:
- Details of fund allocation
- Details of approval processes for a university/college
along with all the required documents
- List of necessary details required for accreditation.
3. Industry/Corporate Bodies
Governing bodies can empanel some of the organizations
selected through a process to become key contributors in
providing inputs regarding the latest trends in the industries.
This would enable the governing bodies to keep the universities/
colleges in synch with the market needs. Organizations
can provide input to the system in terms of:
- Desired skill set in current scenario
- Details of upcoming projects/employment
These contributions can be made at a common place in
the system.
B. Output from Higher Education Service System
1. Consolidated Information for Analysis
HESS will have consolidated information of all the registered
universities and their students. It would enable the
governing bodies analyze trends and take strategic decision
in future. For illustration, in many universities across
United States, a system is used to analyze the demographics
of students registering with a University45. It helps them
analyze the application trend based on geography and
demographics e.g. students from which part of the country
are not applying to the university and why. Similar analysis
can be done in India by governing bodies to see and compare
the performances of various Universities based on re-
gions. This analysis can then help them in devising a strategy
for the overall growth of a region and its population.
Once the data about Universities/Colleges and their students
is consolidated, many kinds of analysis can be carried
out for the betterment of the education system. Some of the
analysis can be:
- Trend Analysis of Demand: The choice of courses
by students is probably the best indicator of changing
market needs. This trend can be proactively
tracked by the governing bodies and a mechanism
can be developed in short time to empower various
Universities to deliver a quality education in those
courses.
- Performance Analysis: With the data available
about colleges and Universities, various metrics
can be defined to measure the performances. Some
of the metrics can be employment rate vs. passing
graduation rate. This kind of analysis will help
governing bodies to concentrate on specifically on
those universities that have bad employment to
passing graduates ratio.
2. Visibility into Fund Utilization by Universities
By enforcing Universities/Colleges to update the fund
utilization status on a periodic (monthly/quarterly) basis the
governing bodies can have a deeper visibility into the efficacy
of funds. This would help the governing bodies to improve
the utilization rate by monitoring on a regular basis
and preventing hasty decisions by universities to utilize the
fund before its expiry.
3. Single Point of Contact for Universities/Colleges
The system will gather all the pre-requisites from governing
bodies and professional councils for funding/approval
process. This information will be consolidated at a place to
reduce the duplication of efforts. To illustrate, when a university
applies for funds/approval or any other engagement
with UGC (as example) then the entire necessary documents
can submitted online by the university without any
manual interaction. These documents will stay in the repository
of the HESS so that if University has to interact
with any other body like AICTE etc. then the university
need not resubmit common information. The system will
fetch the information from the repository for AICTE.
This will reduce submission of similar information by the
Universities to different governing bodies. The data will be
submitted by the University at a common place and will
then be re-routed to various governing bodies as and when
required.
4. Benchmarking against better performing colleges
It is really astonishing to see the gap between some of the
top institutes (IITs, IIMs etc.) of India and the other institutes.
The gap among these institutes needs to be reduced to
raise the overall level of higher education in the country.
With HESS having consolidated information about all the
colleges and Universities, benchmarking of lesser performing
colleges can be done with the better performing colleges
based on some common criteria like:
- Efficacy of Fund Utilization: If two colleges with
similar funding perform at different levels then the
governing bodies can organize a knowledge sharing
session between the two colleges.
- Better Student Performances: If two colleges with
same course offerings and similar faculty to student
ratio have drastically different results then the
best practices can be replicated from one college to
another.
- Course Modification: Based on feedback from the
industry, the system (HESS) can identify intelligently
which courses need to be modified. Subsequently,
with the approval of authorities necessary
changes can be made to the curriculum in a short
time making our system dynamic and adaptable to
change.
All this kind of analysis can be performed in a short time
by using HESS.
5. Intelligent Feedback Mechanism
The voices of the end consumer of education i.e. students
are rarely heard directly by the governing bodies. There are
too many levels for the voice or opinion of a student to remain
original before reaching the concerned authorities.
HESS can have an interface with the students to get the
direct feedback on some critical matters like efficacy of
course etc. The feedback then can be intelligently analyzed
by the system to show the impact of suggested change on
the key result areas (like Governance, Teaching, Evaluation
etc) set by the governing bodies.
6. Industry Orientation and Improved Employment Rate
The yardstick to measure the quality of education in a
country is either the contribution in Research & Development
or the Employment rate. Assuming that every institute
has a limited number of R & D aspirants, measuring the
quality of education depends mainly on employment rate.
Though governing bodies need not be responsible for creating
job opportunities yet they can play a significant role in
reducing the unemployment rate in lesser-known colleges
by re-directing some of the job opportunities. This would be
a great help for bright students in lesser-known colleges.
For creating such opportunities projects/jobs in various
fields can be published in the system by industry/other colleges.
These project requirements can then be internally
communicated to select institutes based on some rules e.g.
colleges with low employment rate but good academic results
can be given preference.
This is not to say that governing bodies should act like
placement agencies but like a body that will make sure that
good universities or good candidates in remote areas don’t
lose out on opportunity to change their lives. Assumption
here is that the corporate houses and organizations would
trust a governing body more than an individual university.
III. KEY BENEFITS
A. Single Window Approval/Clearance System
As discussed above, the HESS can provide a single window
for approval/clearance for an institution. The documents/
details to be submitted need not be duplicated. A
common repository would hold the documents from where
the concerned governing body can fetch the information
anytime.
B. Faster Approval and Funding Processes
HESS can reduce long cycle of accreditation and approval
by automating most of the manual processes. This
will not only help in better utilization rate but also encourage
the universities to go for accreditation/approval on a
regular basis.
C. Keeping a check on Fraudulent Colleges
The integrated system can respond to any university/
college’s request to verify the status of a college. In
case of transfer/admission/placement of a student to a university/
organization, his credentials can be verified on a
real-time basis. This will prevent students from using fake
degrees to get admission/job.
D. Improved Quality of Education
An integrated system like HESS can enable the authorities
to analyze the performance of one of the best performing
institute in related field and compare it with other colleges
to identify the gap areas. Also, the system can obtain
feedback from industry and students to modify course curriculum
if deemed appropriate by the authorities. This will
allow all the lesser performing colleges to reduce the gap
with better performing institutes. It will be help in the betterment
of the higher education in the country and increase
the number of employable students.
E. Increased and Broadened Employment
The HESS can be used as an analytical tool to assess the
performance of an institute based on employment rate vs.
the number of passing graduates. This would enable the
governing bodies to capture the reason behind the low employment
rate in a college. The opportunities from corporate
houses/colleges can then be broadly diverted to lesserknown
colleges for some bright students.
IV. POSSIBLE ROADBLOCKS
The HESS can be a significant step in improving the
governance and service levels in higher education but there
can be some roadblocks in the success of this concept:
A. Furnishing Data by Universities/Colleges
The biggest roadblock in the success of this kind of system
would be the availability of data with Universities/
Colleges. At the moment, this data would have to be
uploaded on a monthly/quarterly basis manually in most
cases.
The best-case scenario would be if these institutes/
universities have the required data maintained in their
own systems. In such a scenario, the data can be
fetched/requested at any moment for analysis and decision
can be taken on real data and not past data.
B. Threat of Losing Control
One possible concern area for Universities/Colleges
would be of losing control over the utilization of funds,
innovation in teaching etc.
This threat would require to be attended to by the governing
bodies. Actually, it is not a threat but an opportunity to
gear up for possible competition from foreign universities
in the long run by being transparent and more efficient.
C. Concern about Sharing Best Practices
Another area of concern especially for the better performing
institutes can be that of sharing their practices through
which they achieved better results.
This again needs to be addressed by the authorities by
giving some incentives for sharing their practices in an
open manner with lesser performing colleges.
V. CONCLUSION
Higher Education Service System (HESS) is a concept
that can possibly revolutionize the governance in higher
education. It has the capability of improving quality of
higher education and increasing number of employable students.
Despite its great potential to help the higher education in
India the success of this concept will be based on a great
coordination and support from governing bodies and Universities,
Colleges.
REFERENCES
[1] FICCI Survey on Understanding of Private Higher
Education in India, 2006
[2] Higher Education Sector in India: Opportunities &
Reforms (Foundation for Democratic Reforms / Lok
Satta), Tulika Khemani & Jayaprakash Narayan,
March 2006.
[3] Higher Education in Science and Research & Development:
The Challenges and Road Ahead (INSA, New
Delhi and Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore),
August 2006
[4] Measuring Returns: Examining the Financial and
Process Improvement Impact of Student Administration,
Human Resources, and Finance Systems in
Higher Education, White Paper by Eduventures, 2004
[5] Ministry of Education Website:
http://www.education.nic.in
[6] National Accreditation and Assessment Council
(NAAC) website,
http://www.naac-india.com
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