Higher education is a critical factor impacting a country’s economic future. Never will this be more decisive than the current situation in India which is poised to become the country with the “largest working population” in the coming decade on one hand and on the other is not even in the top 20 nations when it comes to global skill ranking. A great opportunity for India which can be utilized only if this critical determinant is addressed fully and wholeheartedly.
The global winds of change which have been blowing for some time, including shifts in the job market and rise of automation, more of the expansion in higher education happening in the middle-income nations (75% of global STEM graduates will be concentrated in BRICS nations), growing disconnect between employer demands and college experience, increased urbanization, restricted immigration, and student mobility.
While these changes have been in the air for some years, certainly these have been accelerated after the pandemic and India is now sitting on the cusp of some fundamental and substantial changes in the way higher education infrastructure is going to pan out in the coming months and the way it is going to be delivered. Most of the higher education institutions have been rudely awakened from a deep slumber and shaken out of the stupor it has accumulated over the decades. It is high time that the educators and administrators realize that the change is here and it’s “now or never”
The coming six to nine months will see some of the old, established institutions downsize or even close down while some new ones will become stronger and gain at the expense of the others. A new order is emerging and over the next two to three years, it will take shape and start flourishing. Some institutions, teachers, and the chalk/talk pedagogy will become history, if they do not embrace and evolve quickly to adopt these radically different ways.
How Indian students are coping with the pandemic times
Many who had dreams of studying abroad have ditched their plans and have decided to enroll in the top Indian Universities and colleges. The appetite for foreign education has been severely dampened with escalating fees being a severe deterrent for international students. While some foreign universities have adopted blended and hybrid models of learning, this trend is going to gain momentum in the coming months. Many students have given this year a pass and will be planning to enroll for higher education in the academic session of 2021.
The narrow admission criterion of Indian institutions as compared to the admission process in foreign universities is discouraging to students who are not equipped to perform well in the competitive examinations. There are talks of encouraging a holistic admission process followed by internships and field projects along with curriculum learning with more focus on soft skills and personality development that is so necessary for career progression.
The current situation augurs well for the top-ranking colleges who have gained on both fronts — quality students as well as greater intake. However, the story with the lower-rung colleges is quite different. There is a huge shakeup happening silently in the B-grade colleges. Some of the universities have tied up with popular online content providers to supplement or even provide an alternative to running online classes delivered by its own faculty.
Challenges that HEIs are facing in transforming themselves:
- Faculty is technically not sound to deliver online lectures.
- HEIs are not having the infrastructure or resources to process online teaching immediately
- Some students do not have access to smart phones, computer systems, or the Internet
- Creation of appropriate digital content, online assessments and fair evaluation in online mode are problems they are finding difficult to grapple with
- Hands-on practical experiments or illustrations in laboratories is not possible
- Resistance to and lack of awareness of technology and effectiveness of online learning among students, parents, and even teachers and in most cases in college administration
- As per the results of a survey across India, about 64.3 percent of the colleges are private unaided. A majority of the colleges in India are privately managed with or without receiving aid from the government.
The response from these institutions so far to meet the changed requirements can be broadly clubbed under four categories:
1. It’s a bad dream and will go away — Things will go back to normal, albeit if it takes time. Till then, we can cut expenses, reduce the salaries of teachers, even do away with some of them since student strength has also dwindled and some are not paying fees, but this too shall pass
2. Who will bell the cat? — Let’s wait and watch. Let us manage our resources and improve efficiencies. Yes, teachers can conduct online classes on free platforms and share content and notes on free messenger platforms. Students will cope and hopefully, things will go back to the “good old days” soon. If not, we will follow the others if they also change
3. Let’s do something about this — Sadly, the numbers are less but there are some Institutions that are mostly the larger ones or groups with more than one college which is taking baby steps towards what is real e-learning and blended learning. They are training or up skilling teachers on the finer aspects of online teaching and also ramping up their support infrastructure. However, the changes are incremental and they are learning on the go
4. This is the time to change — Again, a mere handful of institutions who have realized the full extent and depth of changes that are required starting from the strategic business model, their core competencies and positioning and working all the way across all the dimensions that need to be changed. They have drawn up a blueprint and a clear roadmap of change management and have started implementing it
These are exciting times for sure! A lot is happening right now and the pace of change is only going to grow. What the HEIs should realize is that the transformation from traditional classroom teaching to e-learning needs a totally different approach and the stop-gap measures that most of them are currently adopting are only going to discourage and alienate the students in the long run by generating negative word of mouth from their experience. Some of the STEM colleges have roped in technology experts and CEOs from the IT/ITeS industry to mentor their institutions in a bid to meet the challenging times. Some have even gone to the extent of developing their own LMS and digital content.
Over the last few months, I have interacted with more than a thousand teachers across more than fifty HEIs and the story is unwaveringly similar — students are dissatisfied, teachers are struggling, fees collection is falling, the administration is confused and lost.
Since March 2020, thousands of ed-tech companies have mushroomed, many of which are start-ups with fractured and flawed software that are cheap but not backed by robust service support. Many unsuspecting digital immigrants are falling prey and adding to the woes of the students as well as the institutions. HEIs must appreciate that it is easy to buy software that automates some or most of the learning processes in institutions, but the real challenge is in the adoption and implementation of the entire system which includes the change in the mindset of the college administration, teachers, students, and parents also.
There are very few companies in the ed-tech domain who have the consulting expertise to provide the full support to help HEIs transform holistically and not just provide some LMS software or even some ERP-like solution which look and sound attractive but turn out to be a bit of a damp squib when it comes to implementing them.
Here are some tips on how the colleges can handle the change initiative effectively:
1. Develop a change vision and a clear strategy for the institution. Create a guiding team to lead the change transformation who are fully committed to and will lead the transformation journey. There should be a sense of urgency and commitment from the top leadership in doing this.
2. Communicate the change vision for buy-in, a clear roadmap for the implementation, and empower broad-based action to execute the change initiative. The roadmap should not be limited to LMS or the creation of digital content or even college administration issues only. It should encompass the entire education ecosystem including admissions, industry connects and placements, student experience tracking, and mapping, examination conduction
3. Generate short-term wins — Adopt a staggered process of introducing the change and doing course correction along the way to improve the overall satisfaction of all stakeholders with the experience
4. Don’t let up — It takes grit, determination, and resilience to weather the storms and overcome the obstacles. Remember, the challenges can come from the most unexpected quarters and it needs an agile and dynamic approach to make necessary changes
5. Incorporate change into the culture — Reward the successes of stakeholders e.g. teachers, students, and staff. Create champions who will nurture and drive the change internally
Our experience of working with several higher education institutions shows that usually, the decision-makers falter in the first two steps which have a cascading negative effect on the following steps. The support of experienced partners who have the expertise of driving such organization-wide transformations is needed to help the HEIs to navigate this transformation safely.
A final word of caution! It is a change that will impact the brand position, performance, and growth potential of the institution. Do it carefully but do it now
References:
- Bloomberg analysis of U.N. World Population prospects 2017 Edition
- McKinsey Global Institute journal
- HRD ministry’s AISHE report
