Setting Priorities for Indian Universities

(Part-1 of the series: Leadership and Management of Institutions of Higher Education)

No institution can afford to stand still adorning the ornaments of its past glory. It has to keep moving ahead embracing the changing environment, earning more glory that is contemporary.

The purpose and role of Universities and institutions of Higher Education is accepted and established. Despite the growth in the number of such institutions and even in their sizes, most universities in India are doing a shoddy job of delivery on the expectations of the economy and the society that has been bestowed upon them.

Universities have compromised on the scope of their responsibilities behind the veil of growth in size and an alibi of political interference; both of which are unfortunately real. Systemic decay in the leadership and management of the universities has brought these institutions to a stage of minimal performance, a level that barely keeps them going in a rudderless and directionless motion. Universities and institutions of Higher Education continue to do what they do, mindless of what they are expected to do and destined to do, claiming to be doing just what they are ordered and permitted to do.

The scale and scope of the transformation needed is propagated to be so daunting that except for making loud noise for it, no political party, no administrative machinery or a voluntary organisation, not even a business enterprise or a grass-root organisation comes forward to bite the bullet. If Universities and institutions of Higher Education continue to fail the people of India, people will someday lose their patience and quietly eliminate these institutions, as they have done to dysfunctional ideologies, festivals, customs, practices, languages, regimes, businesses and institutions. It is in an enlightened self-interest of the people who make a living from out of these institutions Higher Education to take the onus and responsibility of the transformation.

The first step is to set the right priorities for these institutions and set the priorities of these institutions right.

Institutions of Higher Education

Post-secondary educational institutions (Universities and colleges) can be viewed from a variety of different perspectives. For most of the students and staff who work in them, they are centres of learning and teaching where the participants are there by choice and consequently, by and large, work very hard. Educational institutions as work places must be positive and not negative environments.

From another aspect, post-secondary educational institutions are clearly communities, functioning to all intents and purposes like small towns and internally requiring and providing a similar range of services, while also having very specialist needs.

From yet another they are seen as external suppliers of services to industry, commerce and the professions. These 'customers' receive, among other things, a continuing flow of well qualified fresh graduates with transferable skills; part-time and short course study opportunities through which to develop existing employees; consultancy services to solve problems and help expand business; and research and development support to create new breakthroughs.

However, educational institutions are also significant businesses in their own right. In case of countries like Australia, UK and the USA, higher education is a major export industry with the added benefit of long-term financial and political returns.

Irrespective of the way one looks at such institutions, management and leadership is the core differentiator for the success of these institutions.

To begin with the obvious, all universities, colleges and institutions of higher education are:

• pluralistic institutions with multiple, ambiguous and conflicting goals;
• comprising of professional faculties, departments, schools and centres that are primarily run by the profession (i.e. the academics) often in their own interests rather than those of the clients; and
• a set of collegial sub-institutions in which the Head of the Institution is akin to a managing partner in a professional firm who has to manage by negotiation and persuasion and not like a owner of a private firm who can manage by diktat and decree and more.

Change is extremely difficult to bring about in an institution with these characteristics. A prerequisite for change is some pressure – often a threat from outside the institution – which convinces its members that change, is necessary.

Context is of the 21st Century

The world is changing faster than human perception. Capital movements have replaced trade as the driving force of the world economy. Production has become uncoupled from employment. 75-year struggle between capitalism and socialism has almost ended. Primarily the product of a technologically interconnected world (Internet, Satellite TV, and Cell phones), new global consumer culture (Google culture, live-in culture, coffee culture, fast-food culture, credit card culture) is replacing the conventional understanding of culture. Younger people have more similarities with their age cohorts elsewhere in the world, in terms of their dreams, aspirations, attitudes, opinions and even in consumption behaviour than their own parents.

Scenario at the Horizon

To get a sense of what lies in store for these institutions, it may be useful to look at the external perspectives (those of the stakeholders and the society) and internal perspectives (those of the leaders and managers of such institutions) on higher education.

Perspectives and Expectations:

• Comparison and Bench marking for all institutions against pioneering institutions,
• Nebulous public expectations of programme quality,
• Scant and superficial media coverage for good work done but increasing media bashing for even trivial failings,
• Increasing expectations from public and students that their educational certification receives acceptance of potential employers,
• Curriculum and pedagogical controversies,
• Non-availability of good faculty resources in sufficient numbers,
• Rising faculty costs and expectations,
• Public acceptance for private institutions appears to be increasing.

Prospects and Opportunities:

• Increasing public faith in formal education as an instrument to stable careers, social status and assured livelihoods,
• Rising demand for educational programmes particularly in the developing world and in the domains of economics, business and commerce,
• Limited and decreasing public funding,
• Cost and Revenue Complexity in running the programmes – total costs are a stepped-function (larger share of fixed costs) while revenues are variable and nearly straight-line,
• Limits on revenues from the fees charged from the participants,
• Concerns of sustenance and replication of quality in scaling up the operations,
• Those who can afford and even those who cannot but manage with some difficulties are willing to pay for better education.

Options in Establishing Institutional Priorities

There are no limits for the options in terms of priorities that any University or an institution of higher education can set for itself. It is useful however to create a small list of a few priorities that would have more generic and universal applicability and acceptability. In no order of precedence, just the five of these priorities are:

1. Research Driven - progress (in exploring the possibilities of knowledge and improving the content of the curricula in different disciplines) in the institution is compelled by research;

2. Higher Level and Scarce Skills - skills that enable analysis and synthesis of a range of knowledge, critical reflection on different and potentially conflicting sources of knowledge; developing complex arguments, reaching sound judgements and communicating these effectively to fill particular roles/professions or occupations in the labour market;

3. Strategic Partnerships – socially and mutually beneficial cooperation and networking with government, social and business institutions that supplement and/or compliment the progress;

4. Intellectual Achievement - the power or talent of the mind by which one knows or understands, as distinguished from that by which one feels and that by which one wills; the understanding; the faculty of thinking and acquiring knowledge;

5. Financial Strength - ownership, access and commitments of resource that ensure operational and strategic sustenance


One reasonably appropriate way forward would be to add one more priority to the above list to reflect the differentiated context and strategy of the specific university and then set these six priorities in an order of precedence.

Introspection on Capacities and Capabilities

Each University and institution should carry out an audit of its physical and intangible assets in order to get a sense of existing capabilities and capacities or gaps within before embarking upon a strategic trajectory of actions to meet the priorities set. Such capacities or gaps therein usually result from:

· Location and Geography

• Neighbourhood, Proximities, Physical Access
• Possibilities on Physical Expansion
• Vulnerabilities and Distractions

· Resources

• Financial Reserves and Resources
• Access to Investments and Funding

· Assets

• Legacy and Philosophy
• Accreditations and Certifications
• Experience, knowledge, data
• Processes, systems, IT, communications
• Size of Product portfolio

· People

• Morale, Commitment, Leadership
• Diversity and Experience of Senior Executive Team
• Diversity, Experience and Size of the Faculty
• Cultural, Attitudinal and Behavioural disposition of Staff

· Reputation, Presence and Reach

• Awareness and Perceptions of stakeholders
• Nature and Vigour of Business Linkages
• Energy of Community Connections
• Credibility of Programmes
• Attractions for high calibre students
• Price, Value, Quality equation

India is moving on a sustained trajectory of high growth. She is going to encounter a complex and turbulent environment, and therefore its universities face acute organisational complexity resulting further into enhanced operating complexity. If the universities wish to play the stellar role in leading the Indian transformation (not an unrealistic dream – such roles had been played historically by the North American universities in the 20th century) the Indian Universities and Institutions of Higher Education will have to proactively engage themselves in creating the future. That will be the challenge of living up to national and regional priorities.


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Part-2 follows soon.
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