This Chapter is an introduction to Indian Higher Education System and in particular the present Management Program. This chapter also includes information about the present Corporate Scenario and the suitability of existing Management Curriculum to meet the Corporate Expectations. Countries like India needs to assess the relevancy of Academic Output from Higher Academic Institutions as per the changes in Global economic environment.
The review of literature illustrates, every year approx 2.5 million graduates are being produced by the academic institutions from different streams and most of them are being absorbed by the Industries at various cadres to channelize the turn of our economy. These Recent College Graduates (RGS) are provided basic training to tune up with the Industrial climate. It is rightly said ,
"What is really needed to make Democracy function is not knowledge of facts but right Education"- Mahatma Gandhi.
"Higher Education contributes to the promotion of Civic behaviours, Nation-building and Social cohesion through the transmission of democratic values and cultural norms. This supports the formation and strengthening of social capital, generally understood as the benefit of membership in a social network that can provide access to resources, guarantee accountability and serve as a safety net in times of crisis. The institutions, relationships and norms that emerge from Higher Education are instrumental in influencing the quality of society`s interactions, which underpin economic, political and social development. Higher Education Institutions are at the crossroads for social co-operation, which can foster strong networks, stimulate voluntary activity and promote extracurricular learning and innovation."
- V.N. Rajasekaran Pillai, Vice-chairman, UGC.
The famous philosopher Einstein while discussing the need for education has projected the following fundamentals:
To educate the individual as a free individual: To understand and use critical thinking skills,
To educate the individual as a part of society : Virtually all our knowledge, our clothes, our food is produced by others in our society, thus, we owe society and have responsibility to contribute back to society,
Through education, knowledge must continually be renewed by ceaseless effort, if it is not to be lost. It resembles a statute of marble which stands in the desert and is continually threatened with burial by the shifting sand. The hands of service must ever be at work, in order that the marble continue to lastingly shine in the sun.
According to Ronald Barnett (1992), there are four predominant concepts of Higher Education:
Higher Education as the production of Qualified Human Resources,
Higher education as Training for a Research Career,
Higher education as the efficient Management of teaching provision,
Higher education as a matter of extending Life chances.
Higher Education is generally understood as to cover teaching, research and extension. But, in real, if we analyze each concept of Higher Education, the Higher Education plays a different role in the society. The 21st century is emerging with new society, where knowledge is the primary resource of production instead of capital. Efficient utilization of this existing knowledge can create comprehensive wealth for the Nation and improve the quality of life-in the form of good communication facilities, quality education, better infrastructure, science and technology, health care facilities, and other social indicators.
The report of UNESCO International Commission on Education in the 21st century titled,
"Learning the treasure within"
(Popularly known as Delores Commission)
Emphasizes four pillars of education:
Learning to Know,
Learning to do,
Learning to live together and
Learning to be.
While, Higher Education intends to inculcate all these Four in individuals in the society, the report highlighted the following specific functions of Higher Education:
To prepare students for research and teaching,
To provide highly specified training course adopted to the needs of economic and social life,
To be open to all, so as to cater to the many aspects of life long education,
To promote international co-operation through Internationalization of Research, technology networking and free movement of persons and scientific ideas (UNESCO-1996).
Since the achievement of Independence, the Indian Government aim is to provide education and equalizing educational opportunities to all. Accordingly, the Higher Educational Institutions have been visualized with an aim of advancing quality education to develop a compliant citizen, who has a clear idea about his roles and responsibilities in the society, and focuses on the interrelationship of quality education and quality of life. But to achieve this, all important instruments and the agencies contributing to or responsible for, this growth should be integrated in order to ensure all round development.
The Public Universities, in general, plays a major role in regulating the Academic activities on their campuses as well as their areas of jurisdiction through the affiliating system. Even the private institutions enjoyed large-scale financial support in the form of grants. Private funds as well as individuals played key roles in the cause of higher education.
Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) reveals that there has been an increasing awareness among the people of our, that the Country should be looked upon as it`s valuable resource-indeed and that our growth process should be based on the Integrated Development of the Citizen, beginning with childhood and going right through life.
In pursuance of this idea, a new Ministry was created under a suggestive name, Ministry of HRD on 26th Sept, 1985, through 174th amendment to the Government of India ( allocation of business) Rules 1961.
Currently the Ministry has two Departments namely:
Department of School Education and Literacy, and
Department of Higher Education.
In terms of number of students, Indian higher education and research sector is the largest in the World. Very few Universities in India have made their way in the recent internal ranking. Of the top 200 Universities of the World, except the IIT Kanpur ranked at 29, University of Delhi at 130, IIT Chennai ranked at 132 1.
But the review of literature gives a broad picture that, recently ,the number of Private Institutes in the country has increased impressively where as the number of Public Institutions and Aided Institutions has increased only marginally. Though the count of Educational Institutes increasing in the country the quality output of students are compromised every year. When we are looking for a quality life through quality education, we should have a broader vision of education. The short-term market-oriented focus of educational programs, the unstable and unbalanced emphasis on offering of only job- oriented programs by the educational institutions is a result of a narrow view and lack of preparation of the purpose and goals of education.
In his Excellency Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, Former President of India, in The Tribune, dated July 8, 2003 in his article,
"Creative leaders can change India Vision",
1. Quality Assurance in Higher Education by Dr. Sanjay Mishra - NAAC - 2010.
According to him, a Knowledge society can be a foundation as a vision for a developing Nation, like India. And also plays a primary role to attaining prosperity and power. There is a need to assess the relevancy of Academic Output from the Higher Academic Institutions to the Corporate, as per the changes in global economic environment for a country like India.
When we discuss about the Present Management Education, there is a notion that, current curriculum in Management Education may not be able to teach and mould the students to face the challenges, uncertainties in business environment. It simply teaches the concepts with case studies and does not focus practically on the challenges involved in running an enterprise and the challenges arising out of rapid growing technology, and complexity.
This study focuses on the Management Education, a part of higher education, its role and contributions for the Corporate Expectations to meet the Global Competition.
1.1 MANAGEMENT EDUCATION IN INDIA:
As a concept, the management education was first developed in USA, in 1881 (with the funding of Joseph Wharton) Wharton School of Finance and Economy at the University of Pennsylvania (Pierson 1959). This program was seen as significant to be referred as MBA program as idealistic business education. Then in 1906, the first well-known full-fledged Management School was established by Harvard University inspired by Wharton School, was the notion of professionalism. Until a few decades ago, however, the Management Education has not gained prominence. MBAs had over the years gone through roadblocks in terms of acceptance, visibility and credibility in the eyes of the Corporate World (Vijayasarathy 2004).
The emergence of professionalism and significant increase in the demand for Management Graduates in the Corporate Sector paved way to rise the status of MBA program, and is closely linked to the Globalization, competitive global business environment and its increasing importance. The demand from the employment market has in turn led to a significant expansion of Management Education across the world. This is evidenced by the spurt in the number of business schools from both the private and public sectors. Today, from a wealth-creating economy point of view, the challenge of Management Education is to develop new skills, including 'Employability' skills and the expertise needed to undertake 'knowledge work'. Investment in knowledge and skills brings direct economic returns to individuals and society (Scottish Executive 2005). People who gain knowledge, skills and competencies through learning will invariably contribute to the economic development of Nations. Management education thus plays a vital role in enhancing competitiveness in a global knowledge society.
Management Education in the country can roughly be divided into Four Groups:
The First group is at the top, and are the reputed institutes like IIM, IIT..etc., imparting high quality of education.
The Second category are those institutes, started by industrial houses, which offer some surety of a job after the course.
The Third category are the university departments which have not been able to impart quality education but can provide jobs in regional industrial groups.
The Fourth rungs are those institutes which have neither the advantage of low fees of a university nor the backing of an industrial house.
Recently, a number of academicians, retired people, politicians and others have started such institutes which remain essentially money making devices.
1.1.1 Areas in Management Education:
Marketing, Finance, Production and Personnel are the four major areas in management with each having several sub-branches.
MARKETING MANAGEMENT: Includes sales, purchase, domestic and international marketing (exports-imports), advertising, marketing strategy, materials management, consumers' behavior, market development and research.
FINANACIAL MANAGEMENT: Includes all the aspects relating to finances, investments, financing decisions, portfolio management, project management, working capital management, international financial management, etc.
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT: Takes care of Production methodology, costing, operations research and quality control etc.
PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT: Deals with the most complicated aspect i.e. management. It looks after the areas of Human Resource Development (HRD), Recruitment, Training, Management-Union Relations, Labor and Personnel Policies, Organization behavior, Management of Change and General administration.
A degree of Master in Business Administration (MBA) is considered to be an entry to careers in Management. While choosing the area of specialization in Management, the candidates must estimate their aptitude for a particular aspect of Management. Candidates with commerce background usually go in for Financial Management and the Technical Graduates with Science or Engineering degrees usually choose Production Management. Rest of the candidates choose Marketing Management or Personnel Management, depending upon their aptitudes and flairs.
Management Education in India has been increasingly realized and recognized as the main instrument of socio-economic change in the present and advanced age of science and technology. One needs to be educated not only to become a better social being but also he/she should be a better creative and productive being. Management Education has been accepted as an instrument of development and for strengthening the values of Democracy. It is rightly said and believed that, the destiny of our Nation is shaped by the quantity and quality of students coming out of Educational Institutions, especially Higher Education.
In a society like India, with full of diversity, ideology and opinions, Higher Education means different things to different people. Higher education, especially Management Education is now under a confused stage of identifying what kind of approach that may be adopted. Whether the institutions should follow typical knowledge based education or more skill based workability based education.
The basic purpose of any Management Program is to impart the business aptitude, knowledge and skills that ensure better professional skill development for employability for the pursuers, after completing their professional education. In order to clarify, what kind of management education need to be impart by the business school, contemporarily, it is important to identify the expectations of the corporate on employability and the major hard and soft skills, qualities and knowledge expected. The unique culture of our country is the acquisition of knowledge and sharing the experience of knowledge.
The main purpose of this study is to analyze the suitability of these Recent College Graduates (RCGs) from the Management Stream to the industries and to assess the Gap, if any, and this gap can be filled by adopting the suitable measures by both Academics and Industry. The Academia should design its syllabi and pedagogy to match with the current global industrial requirements. To attain this target, and to minimize the obsolescence of academic output, a close collaboration between institutions and industry is very essential.
Employers today operate in an environment that demands new and constantly developing skills to retain Global competitiveness. For this purpose our Education System has to fulfil the Gap between industry and academic output by adopting best teaching methods and designing suitable Curriculum. It was suggested that the existing patterns of Management Education including the structure, roles and responsibilities of various universities should be reviewed in the light of the new demands from the corporate to promote the employment opportunities. To attain this, it is very much essential to emphasize on the determinants like: Qualifications to Prepare for a Career in Industry/corporate.
To meet these challenges of the 21st century countries like India need to modify thrust of academic institutions from being centres of imparting information to the centres of creativity and excellence. In the coming years, we expect to mould human beings according to the requirement of more useful human resource in growth-oriented, highly competitive and efficiency-based socio-economic system.
Dr. M.V. Pyle, in his article, "The Challenge of the 21st Century"3 states that for sustainable development of any Nation, Higher Education is a major instrument of change. It has the important task of preparing leaders for different walks of life-social, political, cultural, scientific and technological. Universities function as the important centres of higher education. In addition to their traditional scholarly functions of teaching, evaluation and research, they now have the additional functions of extension and development also. The Educational institutions play a key role in the generation transfer and application of new knowledge. The intellectual dynamism resourcefulness and economic prosperity of any nation is reflected in the quality of university education.2 To initiate and introduce changes policy interventions are necessary.
Two types of policy interventions will be required to restructure our conventional system of education.3
One- through making an integrated educational policy, like,
Re-analysis of contents of syllabi and its suitability to the Corporate Expectations.
Revision of text.
Developing infrastructure, separately for early and higher learning; and
The Challenge of the 21st Century - by Dr. M.V. Pyle
UGC -2003
The strategic action plan can be drawn to prepare individuals for the next century,
Commercialization of Research products,
Establishing HRD Consultancy,
Creating job market,
Developing a system of Evaluation,
and
Management, understanding of workforce planning, and comfort with social networking and HR Technology.
Management Education denotes those activities traditionally conducted by colleges and universities that focus on developing a broad range of managerial knowledge and abilities. Unquestionably, the major issue in
management education is the curriculum offered in our business schools
and this concern has been labelled the competency movement (Wesley and Baldwin 1986). The traditional management education curriculum, as presently constituted, may not be adequately preparing individuals for the challenges they experience as professional managers (Pfeiffer, 1977).
Today one fundamental question comes, whether the curriculum of a business school can produce future leader of the corporation with required management skill to meet contemporary challenges.
An article in the Michigan Daily pointed out to seven things that were wrong with business education.
Fanciful, fictional case studies: Everyone is trying to copy Harvard Business School.
Education is high on theory, low on practical.
Formulae for everything: Real life is unpredictable for formulas.
Students learn not to talk or write as humans do: All that jargon,
For example.
Professors who have rarely worked as entrepreneurs or as senior managers.
Schools create a mystique of excellence by choosing only the high scorers.
Group work is over-hyped-B-Schools reduce every problem to meetings and group discussion. Committees do not solve anything.
A study by the Academy of Management Learning and Education of 5,300 students in the U.S. and Canada found that 56% of all MBA students cheat in the exams.
The moral shortcoming among MBA graduates is compounded by the tendency to look for whatever job pays the most, most preferably the consulting or investment banking industry. As a result of their effect on companies' bottom-line, MBAs themselves have become over-rated. Guy Kawasaki, who helped launch the 1984 Apple computer, and who is well-known Venture Capitalist and Entrepreneur has a formula for evaluating new companies: Add $ 500,000 for every engineer in the company. Subtract $ 250,000 for every (overpaid) MBA onboard.
We all know CEO salaries the world over are insane. The average salary of U.S. CEOs was 113 times that of the average worker. And this was back in 1991! Things have gotten worse now. Social inequity is more severe than ever in this age.
Where is the passion to do something new?
Can you name any successful, path-breaking, innovative company started by an MBA?
The late Dame Anita Ruddick, founder of Body Shop said:
How do you teach passion?
Because, it is often the obsession that drives an entrepreneur's vision.
How do you learn to be an outsider if you are not one already?
Sometimes MBA degrees do not guarantee a job, due to lack of practical exposure. Your bookish education is not enough. We must be able to re-skill ourselves as per the demand. Today's economy expects, such ability to be your own boss as a self-employed person. More than anything, this is the age of DIY (Do It Yourself) and being your own boss.
What is stopping you from reading on your own, taking personal grooming and soft skills classes at your neighborhood-coaching centre, start a small business and make it a point to meet new people every day? That is all there is to DIY business.
As a researcher, I do not intend to completely dismiss the MBAs and the Management Program. MBAs, who have experience and connections in their particular industries, are very useful to start ups and regular businesses alike. Business schools may be good in certain areas as well. They can serve as useful networking and social-grooming places to meet new people, gives us exposure to learn how to carry yourself in business environments. Perhaps you get to read more books than others and exposure to etiquettes and presentations. But these people are far and very few. The present study focuses on identifying the suitability of present Management Program as per the Corporate Expectations and suggests suitable measure to bridge the gap, if any.
1.2 EXPECTATIONS OF CORPORATE FROM THE PRESENT MBA PROGRAM-
NEED FOR ACADEMIA AND INDSTRY INTERACTION-A STUDY:
The present study attempts to evaluate the standard of today's Management Education in developing Management Skills in the paradigm shift of managing business. The First Section of the thesis evaluates the changing scenario of expectations of the Corporate from the MBA Graduates and, the Second Section explains the reshaping of Management Education, if required, with the emerging needs of the Corporate Expectations, and Finally the roles played by Business School and the Corporate`s have been analyzed in the context of changing situation. As such, the research aims at examining the changing need of Management education to produce future Leaders of the Corporation.
The Academic Search process is built upon years of experience and is comprised of the following 6 key steps:
1.2.1 STEPS IN ACADEMIC SEARCH PROCESS:
http://www.academic-search.com/uploads/images/icons2.gif
Over last 100 years, various social movements laid a path for the advent of technology and the movement from industrial-based environment to knowledge-based work. The most positive and most negative circumstances like political boundaries, modern science and technological breakthrough have some form of impact on the way the colleges and the universities "do" higher education. Institutions need to establish greater expectations for maximizing their investment in faculty development by exploring and assessing the best use of technology for learning. The present Higher Education functions basically on the new settings and formats with diverse population of students, including online. But still many facets of Higher Education have remained relatively untouched and need to be reinvigorated. And such process could be reached with the new expectations of students, for curricula and to society.
The research question comes in this study is, whether the roles played by Business Schools are as per the expectations of the Corporate, in assisting the students to acquire necessary Skills, Qualities and Knowledge to meet the Global Competition.
The earlier researches in this stream have specified that employers most often desire Communication and Interpersonal Skills, the ability to work well within a team, analytical and problem-solving skills, leadership skills, strategic thinking skills, and computer skills5. Similarly, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) listed Communication Skills, ability to work in Teamwork, Work Ethics, Analytical Skills, Interpersonal Skills, Motivation/initiative, Computer Skills, a detail-orientation, Organization Skills, and Leadership Skills as well as Self-confidence among the Skills and Qualities employers desire in job candidates.6
5..Barker et al., 1998; Van Auden, Gricenko Wells, & Chrysler, 2005
6..NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) , 2006
Fig. 1.2.2: Bridging the gap between academia and industry ....
The Traditional style of running business is undergoing a great change. The old pattern of ownership and management are making way for more participative and professional modes. The Indian economy is fast becoming a part of Global economy. The commitments made to World Trade Organization (WTO) have to be honoured and these will become more time-consuming to meet the terms with in coming years.
This requires a total change in the mindset of authorities as well as who are involved in the production and distribution process. The Government should come forward to accept the role of the producers in decision making with regard to the economy. The idea that the state should occupy the commanding heights of the economy and should control every aspect of production and distribution has now become old fashioned. The function of the Government is to regulate the economy in public interest through fiscal and monetary measures and to help its growth. Business and industry should also look at new horizons. There is a need for restructuring of existing enterprises to be in tune with demands of globalized economy.
First and fore most, every business should have its own core strengths and should stick to it, and not diversify into unrelated fields at any circumstances unlike many business entities already started the process of divesting themselves of unimportant activities than concentrating on their core business. In every business, value addition by use of modern technology, development of human resources and empowerment of people, is important. Management practices being a marketable product, needs to be repacked and given a new look from time to time. Recipes for success of executives and corporations change with almost the same unpredictability. Changing economic conditions and intensification of global competition have given Management Education an increasingly central role in the success of individuals and corporations. Management education has spread in the last fifteen years in India, at this juncture, the Management education needs a critical examination of all the corporate as only developing talent to suit the changing business scenario. This can take India forward.
Today's best is not good enough for tomorrow. Industry should also growingly draw upon research and development for innovation. There is no question about the need to dramatically increase the efficiency and the productivity of all economic enterprises with the better utilization of all the resources like material, financial and plant. No company or country can survive for long, if its resources are not utilised efficiently, particularly in an integrated global economy. It is unquestionable that almost all resources in India-working capital, fixed assets, managerial time, distribution channels and employees-are inefficiently used though emphasis seems to be given primarily to the generally very badly low level of employee productivity.
All these activities will not bear fruits unless there is a deep study of the marketing conditions. Producers must become sensitive to changing customer demands and tastes. We have now to learn to operate within the framework of global economy-closing our eyes to such a reality will only invite disaster. This will call for greater professionalization and also corporatization of the economy. The future belongs to those who dare to dream and act on the basis of such dreams.
The present Management Education is under transformation phase of acquiring skills and knowledge to face the Global competition. So, it is necessary for States to plan for education development, consciousness-raising and technical as well as professional skills development. For an MBA, an examination really does not matter. An examination is hardly a realistic assessment of a manager's abilities. By cramming for a few hours a student can get high marks. But, management education is not about cramming a few definitions and jargons and getting high marks. It is about transformation, not about passive listening of lectures. It is about challenging some of those concepts and ideas. It is about scoring high in the business world. Major issue is, still the colleges of higher education across the globe faces making provision of adequate vocational skills, with which the student's community can get well better employability option from the corporate.
Almost all organizations are giving a relook into their whole range of activities and evaluating the impact and profitability of each of them, further relating them to the infrastructural strengths and weaknesses. Many over ambitious and some dishonest traders turned entrepreneurs jumped into bandwagon and went on to make quick money and disappeared thus the term, 'Fly-by-night operators' was born. We have in this great country entrepreneurs and visionaries who have ventured into uncharted waters and who developed competence in entirely unfamiliar areas or simply building managements or in creating investors confidence. We all know Jamshed ji Tata and Brij Mohanji Birla forsook their trading background in pursuit of a modern Industrial India. These great people considered interest of the shareholders as one, though an important one, of their objectives.
The technological advancement has dramatically reduced the need for shop floor employees. Though the short term consequences of these in any industrial organization may reduce the employment opportunities in industries like banking, where technology is revolutionised the process. To ensure discipline in the workplace, to enhance the productive efforts and to reduce our employee numbers, are all accepted and need to be vigorously pursued. Employment growth comes through ancillaries and supporting industries.
K.K. Modi declared that antiquated labour laws need to be repealed and others suitably amended to achieve corporate objective. This cannot be denied that the rigidity of our labour laws greatly impedes the growth of labour employment in organized industries and leads to substitution of labour with capital. When this happens, you will have fresh challenges to encounter. Tomorrow's Managers- must be exposed to the cardinal truth that industries do not run as per textbooks. The variables are so many and continuously changing.
Therefore, it is very important to understand the complexities of running business under ever changing industrial scenario. Isolation and Protection offered by geographical location and political compulsions are disappearing very fast. Reverberation are felt very quickly from any global event. Should also clearly understand that the traditionally managed companies are gasping for breath. Commitment to the process of change, its speed only can help them to survive. It is a fact that under the thunderstorm of change lies opportunities for talented people. The talent is to be acquired by hard work and exposition to facts.
Industries and Institutes are important component of Nation-building. The Industry-Institution Interaction needs to be strong. This interaction is intended to fulfil the requirements of the corporate as per the Global Market. The need for 'recognizing work-based learning' that should be of interest to academic staff in higher education who have responsibility for negotiating, designing, delivering and assessing programs for the academic institutions. Academics are well used to the concepts, theories and practices associated with curriculum design for traditional teaching, and indeed, the practice literature with regard to higher education pedagogies is vast.
In a seminar organized by CITM & CIMR on Current Global Financial Turmoil, conducted from 7th to 18th Feb. 2009: Dr. Guruduth Banavar, Director, IBM India research, Bangalore, said,
"Global Economic Meltdown- It's impact on Indian IT industry and Job opportunities"
"Rearranging our priorities in view of global economic meltdown - HR perspective" - Dr. Mrs. Meena Chandawarkar, Director of ASC Karnataka University Dharwad.
"Facing the employability challenge"-
Dr. D. Selvan, Senior Vice President,
Talent Transformation Wipro Ltd.
"The effect of economic meltdown on supply chain management"-
Mr.Rajesh Mittal, Director,
Eicher Motors, Pithampur.
"Turning point"-
Mr. Prashant Joshi,
Manager-Customer Projects Office,
Free scale semiconductors, Motorola.
"Global economic meltdown-Its impact on Indian IT industries and job
opportunities"
Mr. P.N. Padmanabha Manager
HR, HP.
"Career planning and Administrative services in present scenario"
Mr.Neeraj Mandloi, IAS and M.D.,
MPFC and AKVN.
"The impact of Global Recession on Job potential in investment sector"
Mr Ravi Sharma, Chief Executive, HDIL Financial
Services Ltd, Mumbai.
When we address the growing skill gap concerns among the Corporate and Academia, it is becoming a very challenging task to find out the solution as the Employers and Institutes also should consider the change as per the drastic changes such as Globalization and Technology. However, both Industry and the Institution need to share the equal responsibility in demonstrating the methods to tone down the gap.
Fig. 1.2.3: Bringing Corporate and Institute Together
Industry recruits the right candidate with KSA (Knowledge Skill and Attitude) who contributes for the growth and betterment of the organizations.
Today the academic institutions have realized the importance of KSA for their students due to the following reasons:
Change in management model of academic institutions from atomistic model to holistic model.
Growing pressure from industry to reduce the overhead costs like training and development and to make their fresh graduates productive from day one. Greenberger (2001) is of the view that organizations today are looking for trained professionals and students capable of taking decisions.
Increasing interdependence between academia and industry to satisfy need for provisions and innovation in their respective areas.
This requires that an initial baseline of use of technology that work best to facilitate students learning under specific circumstances but not just generically. In light of this, higher education will need to assess the elements of technology best suitable to facilitate students learning. Faculty, as architects of the curriculum, must then articulate learning outcomes for the different levels of curriculum such as course, sequence, major, general education, and entire collegiate curriculum. Those faculty members interested in the intersection of teaching, technology, and learning must identify the elements critical to learner success as well as those that can hamper success.
But we must also listen to our learners. Too often we engage in curricular design and assessment without benefit of feedback from students. Students' learning of the subject matter and the role of technology in their learning will need to be assessed.
STUDENTS: The learning process ought to be with innovative practices, learning process with input from a consortium of leadership, self-directed on becoming international learner. This will facilitate to bring in and achieve the self-awareness about the reason for study. The international learners are integrative thinkers and desperate in drawing a wide range of knowledge. These skills are learned and adopted in one situation to new problems encountered in another in a class room, the work place, their communities and their personal life. Therefore, the International learners are empowered through intellectual and practical skills, informed by core knowledge both broad and deep and ways of knowing and responsible for personal actions and civic values, masters of a range of abilities and capacities. In short the international learners are able to understand better their roles in society and accept active participation. Students are expected to draw on various knowledge bases, integrate them, conduct increasingly more sophisticated analyses as they progress through Higher Education and use their integrated knowledge to solve complex problems.
CURRICULUM: The 21st century management programs are focused on K-12 teacher preparation and development. Classrooms are very much equipped with innovative learning techniques. The Universities are more focused on preparing the faculties for the future and working together to develop tools that full fill the expectations of the Corporate and the society in large. Earlier low-level technologies such as overhead projectors, televisions, and video cassettes recorders have been used to focus students on specific subject matter. These technologies typically include text, equations, graphs, and pictures to enhance learning through models and content rich stories. But the early work in learning technology focused on combining what we knew about visual learning and low-end technologies to create multimedia tools to enhance student learning, knowledge of human imagination and expression, global and cross-cultural communities, and modelling the natural world.
These technologies are assisting the academia to infuse technology in to the curriculum in developing necessary strategies in building the necessary skills and qualities required for the present corporate as a survival skills. If we are to adequately prepare students for an era of change, information, and knowledge explosion in the 21st century, Universities must draw on a variety of technologies and use them as resources to deepen students' learning. The institution should ensure that students have access to the practical exposure, latest, most advanced technology, and make technology an end unto itself instead of the powerful teaching and learning tool that it can be.
The study conducted by the Greater Expectations National Panel reveals that, the curriculum and the co-curriculum should provide numerous paths by which students can achieve broad liberal education outcomes alongside specialized knowledge of one or more disciplines. If students have achieved these outcomes, they will excel at Communicating well in diverse settings and groups, using written, oral, and visual means, Employing both quantitative and qualitative analysis to describe and solve problems and working well in teams, including those of diverse composition, and building consensus. These outcomes can be achieved through strategies such as writing assignments (expository, creative, and personal writing) required and critiqued oral presentations; and problem-based learning.
The learning outcomes of a 21st-century education will enable us to meet new challenges here and abroad, with faculty expertise in one or more specializations and have an exposure to ranging from information "overload" to persistent inequality and pressing social issues. Faculty with these expertise can be able to determine how to enhance the student learning with multi-resources. These challenges require educators who can think in interdisciplinary, multimedia ways to construct the 21st-century curriculum. But simply understanding how to use technology will not provide the integration needed to reach the desired learning outcomes.
When thinking about integrating technology into the curriculum, Checkering and Gamson's seven principles of good practice continue to be sound:
Encourage contact between students and faculty.
Develop reciprocity and cooperation among students.
Encourage active learning.
Give prompt feedback.
Emphasize time on task.
Communicate high expectations.
Respect diverse talents and ways of learning.
This can be achieved through integrating the technology and industry participation in learning the curriculum. Large industrial houses have the resources to invest in technology development initiatives. Academic participation is often needed in minor technological innovation. Such interactions are often result oriented. Small scale industries often depend on support in the areas of design, process improvement and machinery performance etc. They also rely on processes to yield a product which already exists. Problem solving may simply amount to product testing and production enhancement in terms of quantity and quality.
1.3 IS MBA DEGREE IN DILEMMA…..!
This research also addresses the current inadequacies and to respond to some of the criticisms (Ref. Review of Literature) that have raised over the years in Management Program, particularly in regard to post-graduate business education, specifically Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs. Industry and academia interface can be described as collaborative, interactive and interdependent arrangement between academic sector and corporate entities for the achievement of the required skill set for the human resource. Universities and industries which for long have been operating in separate domains, are rapidly inching closer to each other to create synergies. The constantly changing management paradigms, in response to growing complexity of business environment today have necessitated these to come closer.
The main objective of these industry-institution collaboration is promising strategic linkages with universities and colleges, assisting colleges with curriculum development and instructional material, helping colleges develop consistent, high quality curricula for leading and emerging technologies, promoting high quality education by providing state-of-the-art support, enhancing emerging technologies in colleges and universities and enabling colleges to get exposure to the latest technologies and develop a student resource for the application and use of technologies to enhance the student skills, qualities and knowledge.
IBM India has invested $1.5 million in academia initiatives in the last two years. The recently announced 'Drona partner program' is an initiative aimed at bridging the gap between academia and industry. Through this, the company will train teachers and professors to make their students industry-ready.
There is no one magic solution that can address growing skill gap concerns among the Employers. Globalization and technology, will force the change continually. The recently announced 'Drona partner program' is an initiative aimed at bridging the gap between academia and industry. In another partnership of the industry and academia, multinational computer technology and consulting major IBM has collaborated with institutions in order to help create a skilled and competitive IT workforce. The program offers a range of
Fig: 1.3.1 IS MBA DEGREE IN DILEMMA……..
http://www.coolavenues.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/grid-5/article/mba-degree-in-trouble.jpg
resources and support to students, faculty and institutions, in order to provide skills in open standards, critical in a fast-paced and ever-changing IT industry. The program also includes the latest technologies in IBM software, hardware, course materials, training and other resources.
"A lot of times pedagogy cannot be applied at work directly. When the faculty interacts with professionals, there is great scope for bridging the gap that exists,"
"We would also be involving students in live projects later, with IBM mentors leading a team. We are predominantly looking at engineering colleges right now,"
Anil Menon, vice-president, Channels, Marketing
and Ecosystems, IBM India/ South Asia.
Since the introduction of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization concept in 1991 business schools in India are open to the world of opportunities. Traditionally these schools had relationships with industry was restricted only to internships and placements for their students, but due to the criticality of human competence in creating and sustaining competitiveness of the organizations, business enterprises and academic institutions are shifting from learning models to employability models.
An academician shows interest normally in problems that are intellectually challenging. His areas of interest lie in technology development initiatives and methods related to process and design improvement. Researchers have strong preference for working towards creation of knowledge in specialized areas. For industry-related problems, a researcher has to explore a variety of options which is time consuming.
Fig. 1.3.2: As a Researcher needs to explore …….many options!
In academic institutions, time frame of an academician is governed by research guidance and teaching assignments. The present study addresses very clearly in the findings the present status of MBA-Program.
1.4 CURRENT STATUS OF CO-OPERATION BETWEEN ACADEMIA AND
INDUSTRY: AN ANALYSIS.
The real question that should be asked by companies is,
"How best do I attract and utilize MBAs to fit in with our culture?"
At the same time, MBAs should be asking themselves questions about which environment will be best suited to the development of their full potential. For both employers and recruits, asking these questions would ensure that there is a meeting of like minds. Issues related to changes in mindset or retaining talent then seem irrelevant. The best way to deal with a problem is to first avoid its creation in the first place - prevention is better and less painful than cure.
In a two-pronged approach, the present research found out:
Industrial Users are motivated by their vendors and media.
Industrial participation in Academic conferences has been declining for years
(ICSE, ICSM, and CSMR are good examples of this)
Industry feels that there is very little to be learnt from academia.
Industrial personnel do not have very less access to academic journals.
Industrial users are not aware of what academics have to offer and are they suitable for their requirements.
Managers distrust academicians, they believe they only want to experiment at their expense.
Academics are driven by their conferences and technical journals and their need to publish.
Academics are seldom attend industrial conferences as they feel this is below their standard.
Academics look down upon industrial newspapers and magazines.
Academics are not generally aware of the practical problems and constraints of industry.
Academics distrust managers, who they believe only want to exploit them to achieve their business goals.
Academia is not in a position to really track the market demand. Institutions live in their own world of investigating first solutions and then search for a problem that fit to it, rather dealing with the real world problems.
Industry users generally lack the awareness, as such they let themselves be manipulated by vendors who like to bent making their customers dependent. Since they suffer from a lack of awareness as to how they could approach their problems. They do not know what tools and techniques from academia could help them. They also suffer from a lack of standardization and the ability to objectively compare alternate solutions.
Academics and Industries are poles apart, since they have a different mindset as they live in different worlds.
Academics and Industrialists are pursuing different goals. Industry thinks in terms of short range goals, Academia has a long perspective. As the Academic is motivated for recognition from his peers and the industrialist is striving to survive. Industry prefers proven solutions with low risk.
Academia is interested in creating new solutions with a high innovative rate for a maximum solution to maximize their recognition. Whereas Industry seeks for a minimum solution to minimize their risk.
Industry is mainly concerned with costs. Academia could care less about costs, it is mainly interested in the benefits.
There is a need for browsers to search through existing code to find dependencies.
These questions are addressed in the following paragraphs:
1.5 MODES OF INTERFACE TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN INDUSTRY
AND ACADEMIA: A STUDY.
The consequences of the gap between Academia and the Industry may vary from industry to industry and situation to situation, but directly linked with the Global market requirements.
Beard (1994) has a number of recommendations towards increasing and enhancing academia-industry interface, which include:
Greater degree of industry-school collaboration to integrate employer's needs into the programs on offer;
Real involvement with industry to allow students to gain valuable practical experience and also to facilitate development of business;
Improve the programs by encouraging the participation of a number of guest speakers who can offer their own practical experiences;
Academic staff should be encouraged to keep their skills updated by undertaking practical consultancy on regular basis.
There are number of avenues available were academic institutions are collaborated with corporate entities, commonly used strategies are;
Funding academic and applied research,
Involving corporate expertise in Board of Studies,
Consultations by academicians in the respective fields,
Faculty development program by industry experts,
Out bound training programs for faculty and students,
Corporate providing infrastructure and financial assistance to academic institutions,
Selecting the faculty from industry background, and
Outsourcing a course paper to industry.
In our view, in the present day world, the entire concept of "working with employers" is a relatively narrow understanding of this association. Multi-level collaboration is needed so that the two entities can contribute to each other's growth. It is important to identify these areas where optimum collaboration is possible rather than giving business corporations a carte blanc' in this matter.
The Present Study identifies the areas needs to be focussed on reducing the existing gaps between Industry and Institution, to bring a better collaboration -As a need of an hour:
1.5.1 Need for Redesigning the Curriculum:
Redesigning the curriculum is quite challenging job, since it requires the academics to re-consider the rationale for the traditional curriculum and its many unquestioned assumptions about the validity of a prescribed learning outcomes approach. According to Elliot et al. (1994) MBA programs place too much emphasis on quantitative and analytical skills and neglect human skills and do little to produce managers who are capable of meeting challenges of global business environment and cope with increasingly diverse workforce.
The ICRA'12 industrial forum will focus on bridging the gap between academia, industry and government by bringing together experts, leaders, and practitioners from diverse domains and from across the world to provide a truly global perspective.
The following topics were addressed during the forum:
How can industry and academia work together by actively collaborating and acknowledging differences in practices, implementations, and mindset?
What can government agencies do to foster such collaboration and facilitate innovation and technology transfer?
How can the end-users and the community at-large benefit from the above three groups working as a cohesive whole?
What are known (and hidden) and not-so-widely discussed barriers and roadblocks?
What is the role of standardization and ad-hoc standards and best practices?
Can the support of entrepreneurship address some of the aforementioned problems?
How can we leverage existing know-how and target the low-hanging fruit as well as long-term issues in a collaborative fashion?
The study recommends the seven principles as reforms for an MBA program:
The MBA program require more courses in the "people skills" that are vital to managing effectively.
Should be able to provide more emphasize on the basic skills and tools needed for problem solving skills.
Should be able to provide strong grounding in theories of economics, measurement, governance, psychology, human behavior and leadership.
The curricula should be designed in compliance with the student quality, preference, interest and basic skills, so that students can learn-by doing-to apply multiple disciplines on the job.
Encourage students to take electives outside the traditional core curriculum.
Create differentiated curricula and allow students to concentrate in specific industries.
Academicians are oriented towards R&D activities of the industry for funds which helps them to sustain their broader research interests.
Similar efforts have been undertaken in the United States, Europe, and Asia with mixed results. You will hear from researchers, vendors, and funding agencies on their experiences and roadblocks they have encountered. A panel discussion will conclude the forum to foster dialog between participants and speakers. Based on the discussions stemming from the entire day, a white paper will be published with an action plan to go from where we are to where we can. The target audience of the forum is end-users, developers, vendors, and anyone who is interested in robotics and automation technologies.
As a researcher I have tried to update on the current scenario of industry. All the organization are looking for 'leaner and hungrier' outlook. Extra excess weight cannot be tolerated by the market, since the Corporations, now a days, face pressures from different stakeholders of the business environment. The changes in the environment have created threats to all of today's organizations. So, the managers have to look for finding the best possible ways of striking the implications brought by the changes. Mostly, it depends on better way of educating their people to convert previous knowledge and experience into today's competencies required for best possible strategies. So, we must concentrate on promise of future potential, continuous search for excellence, cost consciousness and reduction emphasis on strategy exclusive. There is no room for self-satisfaction. If we mix out MBAs from different streams, we only to find them unsuitable for our own industry, it all seems quite meaningless. Such findings are clear reflection of the fact that somewhere down the line, the education system is unable to bridge the gap of expectations verses skills.
This research is an attempt to understand the changing need of management expertise to face the contemporary challenges of management and the roles of business school in this concern. The business has to know the implications of the changes and accordingly has to prepare the people by their capabilities required to implement the strategies.
About fundamental constructive alignment of learning, teaching and assessment, about static semesters and rigid time tables, about linear learning, and about static assessment models, as tentatively illustrate in
Table below.
ATOMISTIC
(Pre-scribed curriculum)
HOLISTIC
(Learning Contract with work as the curriculum)
Pre-determined Learning Outcomes at unit or module level.
Alignment of curriculum content, learning activities and assessment methods.
Teaching hours, learning hours and assessment hours mathematically determined.
Static timetabling of learning progress.
Semester-based calendar structures.
Learning Outcomes broadly defined at level in context.
Integrated and relational curriculum.
Negotiated assessment activities
Scale of learning negotiable.
Challenges of learning tasks determine the pace and extent of learning.
Work-place timelines dominate.
Negotiated weighting of
assessment criteria
Fig. 1.5.2: HETAC Conference November 2007 Dr A Murphy DIT, Griffith College, Dublin.
So, now the game is how the corporate expectations are matched by the value addition you promise as an academician in short and long run. All the talk and system of training is towards building potential for future output. Since loyalty from either side-employee or employer-is a disappearing commodity, job security is also on line.
Today, the corporations want to give a clear message to the business school about their role to play in this regard, means to put all necessary efforts to come with proper set of management skills of the challenges to be faced by the corporations. The leading business schools of India have got proven records of maintaining standards in terms of vision, program design and offerings. It implies that the business school has to cope into the needs of changing situations to produce future managers with all the required skills.
The world is moving very fast, so the employer demands specific skills and competencies to survive. The main theme of this research is about industry and academia interface in the light of that the need for redesigning the curriculum.
Fig. 1.5.3: Industry-Academia Interface:
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Since, this is an attempt made by the present study to indentify the Gap between the Industry and Institution, the following principles can be followed as guidelines in order to bridge the gap between Industry and Academia :
Academicians should take part in industrial projects.
Professors should be given sabbaticals to work as maintenance programmers.
Practitioners should attend courses at the Universities to refresh their knowledge.
There should be common conferences to appeal to both sides in which there are two different standards for selecting papers.
There should be a common language i.e. set of terms.
There needs to be a standard set of metrics of measure software systems and projects.
Industry and academia work best together is where they are one.
For Example: Google is a good example where the industrial companies exploit their ideas.
Open academic environment: It is the responsibility of the administration, the academic board and departmental faculty to establish appropriate norms for existence of an open environment
Freedom to publish: Freedom to publish is fundamental to the university and is a major criterion for the research project. Faculty should be encouraged to engage in outside projects. These at the same time, should not interfere with their performance of teaching and research duties.
It is time now for the business entities to follow ethics not only as moral values but also as a strategy. Values are ones inherent belief system and taught based on the system. Ethics are behavioural norms springs from one's own view of good or bad, right or wrong and is a activity based concept. The business corporation that will lead the way in the years to come will be the ethical corporation. Business ethics deals with policy considerations founded on organizational values and core beliefs. Social responsibility in corporation is proving essential to the long term success of the companies in today's globalised economy. It is not merely a public relations posturing.
Managers often felt that hunt for business ethics and follow them, can be more costlier. It can lose sales to less fussy competitors and drain management time and energy. But Harvard business professor points out that ethical scandal can severely damage a firm, with punishing legal penalties, bad publicity and irreparably injured customer relations. More importantly, even without public scandals, unethical behaviour can undermine a firm's organizational spirit. In order to succeed on the cutting edge of competition there has to be an inevitable change in the corporate mindset from the feudal mercantile competitive mode to the innovative-entrepreneurial-competitive mode. And during and after this process of change in the corporate mindset that business ethics assumes greater and greater importance.
1.5.4 CAUSE AND EFFECT: There are many studies conducted to understand if there is any short comings with the quality of present MBA Program and its suitability to the Corporate expectations. One cause may be the curriculum that has been designed may differ from the demands of the students who prefer the fun of strategy. That could explain why MBA Program do not pay enough attention to the nuts and bolts of problem solving and other competencies that employers demand. It means to say, the students are not taught to pose the question "why", until they cannot ask it, they will not be able to analyse and acquire the problem solving skills. The second cause may be, most of the Management schools are student-centric, and the students are more influential in determining the reputation of the business schools. Another cause of the problem with MBA Education is the increasing similarity of business school programs. The graduates from all the schools resemble one another. Earlier, the corporate use to hunt the managers from reputed institutes like Harvard, IIM, IIT.etc. In brief, as the schools try to tailor their programs resemble one another, programs become more and more generic and less and less impressive in any one area.
In the midst of revolutionary shift, the solution offered in responding to these criticism is a trasndisciplinary adragogy for preparing managers for positions in a business ,where the economic crisis along with other factors like developments in technologies, the changes in the profile and values of young generations and the conflicting forces of globalization and local diversity are shaping the new model of society. At the same time the current circumstances provide an arena where true leadership is tested and where managers can identify new opportunities or reinvent their existing business. Google is the best example for this, where created new adoptive methods in adverse circumstances. It is time for the survival of the fittest, where it is a birth of a new species that better adopt to this new environment.
In this context, business schools' members should feel co-responsible for the current financial mess along the other major business stakeholders including managers, bankers, regulators, rating agencies, academics, gurus, financial journalists and even customers of some financial products. They were narrow-minded by a tantalising vision of a continuously growing economy, being careless in assessing risk and immature in ascertaining the complex consequences of financial decisions in a global economy. However, since business schools have characteristically played the role of icebreakers in higher education and being forward looking, it is more important that we identify and implement new avenues that may bring business practices to a new and more sustainable plateau. At the same
