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Academy Or Aca-Dummy
I have been invited into the Advisory Council of Harvard Business Review. I have accepted the invitation and joined as an Advisor on Harvard Business Council.
View HBR Letter Here
http://capacity-career.blogspot.in/2012/02/hbr-advisory-council-02-08.html
Academy or Aca-Dummy
You are an Educational Institute alright, but…
Are you an Academy or an Aca-Dummy?
I feel, we have more of the latter…..
Last month I had written an article, which was a comparative one between the two of the world’s most famous B-Schools in the world “Harvard Vs Wharton a comparative study”. It is all about how an educational institution has to be, & the parameters and the metrics, against which the institutions have to be evaluated. Of course we could also do the same comparison between IIMs & ISB or IITs & the BITS. But the data available is not sufficient for carrying out a full analysis on all the relevant parameters. Some rankings that are being carried by the highly respected magazines are honest no doubt, but they lack the in-depth analysis. Even that is viewed by a very few parents. Usually the parents fall for the high claims made by the institutions in their ads. Hardly any institution is asked to substantiate its claims with documents.
We need a set of highly demanding parents to make the institutions more responsible in their thought and actions.
Parents, who spend huge amounts for their children’s Technical ormanagement education, do not demand an equitable ROI (Return on Investment) on their precious investments. We feel highly blessed if the institution promises campus recruitment & keeps promise. Is a job, any job, with any salary, a solution? When there is an investment, there has to be a proportionate return. Even the jobs offered do not materialize for quite some time. Aspirants are indefinitely put on bench by the corporates.
Who is to be blamed?? Of course the Academic institutions.
How??? Let us analyze.
The Institutions feel secure the moment they are able to get some organizations for campus drive. This ensures for them the admissions in accordance with their capacity. This also makes them complacent, and the management is reluctant to invest money to improve the quality of content, imparting, quality of the faculty.
Let us analyze as to what is the % of PhDs among the faculty in the technical and management colleges??? Ideal % in top B-Schools & under Grad Schools (Engineering colleges) in USA is 60%. This excludes of course the IVY League Institutions where the % is still higher.
In India 10 to 15 % is considered ideal in Management & Engineering. Rules are there of course; however contravention is more a practice than compliance. Here again of course there are exceptions as University campuses and some institutions of repute follow the norms religiously, judiciously, and zealously. Yeah, but they are not in majority.
However when it comes to qualifications in teaching, you hardly have faculty with qualifications in teaching or education. While in most of the schools, a degree or diploma in teaching is needed for selection as a teacher, no such requirement is needed for becoming a lecturer in a professional college.
You mostly have B.Techs teaching B.Techs or MBAs teaching MBAs in the majority of the Academic Institutions. The institutions have genuine financial constraints. Probably the funds generated cannot give the management the luxury of hiring more qualified teaching staff. These result in lower quality of imparting, lower caliber of the students, lower starting salaries, resulting in lower Brand Equity, lower revenue generation, lower bottom lines, and again a heap of constraints.
There is an urgent need for the Academic Institutions to come out of this vicious cycle. There is an urgent need for them to create a niche for themselves in the education scenario.
(I am reminded of famous words of the immortal poet Alama Mohd. Iqbal अपना मुकाम पैदा कर)
This is possible by working to increase the brand equity of the institutions. This is possible when there is an improvement in the quality of imparting, imparters, & the content. You need to make an investment for the future. The results will speak for themselves. The institutions can reposition themselves, move to the next level & compete with the best.
What we have now is a lot of chaff with a very small quantity of grain. We need a quality winnowing process to separate the chaff from the grain. And a time bound process to transform the chaff into grain.
Now, as far as the job front is concerned, the situation is encouraging globally. It is sweet music to hear organizations speaking about recruitments and expansion. In India the situation was never bad even during the infamous global recession. According to Government sources, during the period 2000-2007, more than 200 million jobs were generated in India. Presently the government of India feels that annually 10 million jobs can be generated every year. Apart from this, government feels that an additional 20 million jobs can be created annually in the labor intensive sectors like agriculture, tourism and other segments.
In ranking an institution, what we need to consider is the return on the investment for the student .The essential parameters should be the Starting pay package. Career growth, the longevity of the job, and the % relevance of the knowledge gained in the institution in job application. There are large media houses with the capacity and resources to do this exercise. They should use the available technology to conduct research and surveys with healthy sample sizes and ensure that the report is available, accessible, and helpful for parents in selecting the best institutions suitable for their children
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We find it gratifying that my articles on education are getting very good and positive response from the Academia, the Industry, students and the people in general both on our CBD blog & wikiHow.
Encouraged by this, we have decided a platform for knowledge sharing, where we will feature information regarding the Academia, the Industry,& people]s take on the education. Apart from the articles written by Shyam on education, we will also feature article by famous management gurus. Case studies from the leading management libraries.
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It is a well known fact that we are associated with three of the best management organizations in the world. “The Harvard Business School”, “The Balance Score Card Community at Palladium Group (sponsored by HBS and Microsoft Corporation),” and Mckinsey & Company. As a member of Executive Panel at Mckinsey & Company, Shyam has recently contributed his opinion on one of the global issues.
With the stress now on optimization in costs and deliverables, students need to know and be able implement the Balance Score Card and Strategy Management Tools in strategic planning, implementation,management of various supply chains,production process management. Six sigma in lean management and others.
The rich resources we have access to, from these organizations will be shared with the institutions evaluated, selected, & developed by us.There will be a highly concentrated effort to take these institutions to the next level.
Aptly christened “Knowledge – Korridor”, it will feature the best Management and Technical Institutions as per our evaluation. We are also prepared to take into our fold honest institutions into our fold, provide them resources, conduct faculty empowerment programmes for them and take them to the next level. A level, where they will command the attention of the better paying organizations. We will continuously promote these institutions on the Knowledge - Korridor and ensure a better visibility for them. We will also ensure that by the next hiring season, students get the best possible offers in the terms of financial packages and career growth potential. Presently we will start with the institutions in India and later on expand to the other parts of the world
Since our expenses will be met by the funds generated from the institutions, we will offer quality recruitment services to the industry at highly affordable prices. We will be happy to initiate discussions with the organizations and plan customized imparting in the institutions to suit the organization needs. Organizations can utilize the contact us forms to get in touch with us.
We will be happy to interact with the institutions to take this programme forward.
Organizations can contact us Here
Academic Institutions can contact us Here
Let us look forward to happy boding for the Institution, Industry, & more importantly for students
Best wishes,
Shyam
Latest update 29-08-2011
Management Institution: wherever you are located, you raise the bar; we will help you cross it. Please use our “Online Imparting” through “Virtual Classrooms” at fraction of costs you incur for various resources, and take your institution to the next level Learn more
My other well read and well accepted articles.
How to ImpartSTEM (Sceince,Technology,Engineering,Math) Education to your children???
