The panel of speakers comprised Vinay Pasricha, chairman, WLCI, Dr S K Gupta, director general, ICRI, Suneel Galgotia, chancellor, Galgotia University, Dr Rajeev Agrawal, director, G L Bajaj Institute of Technology and Management, Poonam Sharma, group director, Accurate Institute of Management and Technology, Ujjwal Vishal, director, 9 Pillars, Vikas Wahi, chief executive officer, Advel Group, M P Jain, advisor to the chancellor, Sharda University. Shifali Rawat, director, Communications, GSBA, moderated the panel discussion.
The panel debated and deliberated upon multiple issues related to the education sector. Some of the hard-pressing questions raised during the Round Table session were: Does education, like any other sector, need hard-selling, or is it unnecessary? Are we spending enough on research and development? Should the educational institutes be autonomous, and if so, to what extent? Dearth of quality faculty -- a reality or just a hype? How important are college ratings, and do they impact business? Mushrooming private institutes -- the mad race, or the more the better? What is the right curriculum, and how to develop it?
Marketing in education: Hard-selling or unnecessary?
One of the most fiercely contested points of discussion was whether the education sector required marketing like any other sector. "Marketing that is very shrill and requires over-the-top publicity is not required in this sector," said Pasricha. Gupta, on the other hand, stated that any kind of marketing was a strict no-no for educational institutions. "Marketing is fine as far as giving information is concerned, hard-selling is not ethical," he said.
"Mass media advertising is also important, but marketing through the alumni is much more impactful", said Vishal. Jain echoed the sentiment when he said, "Marketing in education is different. Students are the best brand ambassadors, and companies which place students are the best brand endorsers."According to Ujjwal Vishal, director, 9 Pillars, the marketing strategies being adopted in the sector are flawed. "The influencers are being neglected." He revealed that in semi-urban markets like Bareilly and Ambala, around 45 per cent admissions are through references.
While Sharma highlighted that marketing by an educational entity should focus on the employability and the placeability of students, Galgotia opined that the institutes, however good or bad, need to tell the world that they exist. "Brand is nothing, but a combination of marketing and the actual product," he said.
While commenting on the need of marketing in education, Galgotia said, "We, the educational service providers, are 'shaping' a product. We are manufacturing and nurturing human capital." However, he warned against hard-selling by saying that one shouldn't be seen hard-selling education, because the student knows what's real and what's not.
Research and Development: Are we doing enough?
The panel members agreed unanimously that inadequate research and development was a cause of concern in India. According to Pasricha, the R&D budgets in India differ from what they are in the US and in the UK. "They are 250 times more in the US," he stated.
"There is a need to create awareness to push research and development further," Gupta said. According to him, R&D can be on many fronts -- academic, commercial and social. "It's just that the institutes of higher education need to have scope, innovation and a will for research and development," he added.
According to Agrawal, while marketing in education is not a priority, the institutes that are known academically and are ahead of the pack have a strong foundation of research and development.
Furthering the notion, Galgotia opined that branding and marketing an institute will go to a certain level. "A good faculty makes a good institute, and good faculty is followed by quality research."
When Pasricha raised a point that India hasn't been able to receive the Nobel Prize in the last 50 years, the panel refuted the argument with multiple justifications. "Flawed primary education is to be blamed for Indians not getting the Nobel Prize," Jain said.
"To flourish and win accolades, research needs good world-class laboratories," said Agrawal. Jain, on the other hand, concurred that research and development should be encouraged by incentivising researchers.
Autonomy and quality faculty: The sticky wickets
According to Galgotia, education has been privatised in India only a decade back. The sector is still in the nascent stage. "The vision and will to excel, along with limited autonomy is what will help the institutes," he said.
The IITs and IIMs have got a monopolistic approach, the panel said in chorus. "Academic autonomy is there, but then private institutes are flush with the relatives of the chairman or the owner," Pasricha highlighted.
According to Jain, the sector needs autonomous institutes, but not affiliated institutes. "Private universities have challenged the monopoly of IITs and IIMs today," he concurred.
The issue of there being a dearth of quality faculty gave rise to passionate comments among the speakers. "Teaching, as an occupation, is not taken up passionately any longer," said Agrawal.
According to Gupta, an institute should be able to retain good faculty. "For that to happen, pay scales need to go up three to four times," Pasricha commented.
"If we need people with industry experience, we need to attract them," he added.
Wahi questioned the exodus of IIT students from India. Why do 80 per cent of IITians go out of India? "That's partly because they get a better lifestyle and a fantastic work environment. If we incentivise a system, it grows," he said.
Gupta suggested that sincere faculty development programmes are the need of the hour. According to Wahi, since not much was being done for faculty development, the passion for teaching was dying slowly. "Ask your students how many of them want to be teachers, and very few will say they do. Teaching should become a profession to look up to," he reflected.
The right curriculum and the way forward
The panel had a consensus that the right curriculum was very important to impart quality education. The panel felt that it should be in sync with what the industry requires today.
According to Galgotia, there is employment, but students who are not employable. "Since the last 30 years, the syllabus hasn't changed in medicine," Gupta said, matter-of-factly.
While agreeing with both Pasricha and Gupta, Sharma said, "India is home to 14 million students today, over 300 universities, and more than 18,000 colleges operate in the country. We need to provide the right curriculum, the right faculty and world facilities to the students because the better the quality you give, the better they will speak about you."
Summing up the session, Rawat said, "There may not be quality controls in education, autonomy and its extent could be a thriving issue, regulators might not be transparent enough, college ratings could be done more professionally, research and development is not given its due, but one thing is true -- if the education sector readies itself for all future challenges, it can help make India the top education provider in the world."
No comments:
Post a Comment