There are challenges and opportunities in Higher education even as its contours are being redefined, especially with the announcement of setting up a Digital University and opening up the borders for foreign universities. These are exciting times with exciting prospects. However, there are intrinsic problems that need course correction. For one, a large expansion has left acceptable quality levels stressed. Limited availability of jobs has put additional pressure on the system.
Many of our professional colleges, unfortunately, do not have the environment that motivates faculty to do research. Unless the quality of research and knowledge created is of high order, a paper cannot be published in a top-ranking journal which may then be cited upon by others. To write such a paper, faculty members constantly have to update themselves by reading, experiencing and experimenting with new ideas, innovations, and have multi-disciplinary approach. They must create consultancy linkages with the industry. For this to happen, enormous funding is required and facilities created, so that the teachers are motivated enough to spend time in the laboratories. Regulatory overbearing will only produce trash in low end journals.
A teacher is central to institutional excellence. Only a clear understanding of the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of investing in faculty can build quality. Universities must recruit high-impact senior faculty, retain the most accomplished faculty, and consistently nurture the growth and development of the rising-star assistant and associate professors. This will improve global rankings besides improving research. Today, ranking agencies seek value added courses, experiential learning, hands on skills, conceptual expertise, exposure to international practices and internships. Obviously, the teacher is seen as the fulcrum. Investing in faculty for an impact on the global stage is the key. Endowed Chairs, Professorships, and Fellowships are critical resources to support and secure future growth.
Institutions, besides investing in good faculty, must also invest in supporting infrastructure, have adequate faculty development budget, a well-managed library, technology-aided classrooms, computers, software and unlimited internet connectivity. Monetary incentives for publications in reputed journals is important. Neither they should be overloaded with administrative and teaching load. Dissatisfied teachers do not add value to either themselves or to the students. Institutions must explore tenure track faculty positions. Incentivising innovations in teaching is a good idea.
All rating and ranking agencies levy a premium on internationalisation. Higher education scholars and practitioners recommend that internationalization plans must include allocated resources, such as budgets for academic exchanges, faculty development workshops, and international curricular development and research grants. Even clustering institutions locally, and allowing faculty to spend a semester of teaching in partnering institutions can raise the bar.
Good institutions go through six phases of internationalization, like awareness, commitment, planning, operationalization, review, and reinforcement. All these are challenges and need adequate finances. This practice can stimulate faculty engagement in internationalization by providing critical infrastructure, incentives, and communication mechanisms to support faculty in integrating international dimensions into their teaching, research, and service to the community.
It then is imperative that colleges and universities invest in faculty development at every stage of their career, so they remain current in their field; are able to translate their research interests into learning experiences for their students, are at ease with emerging technologies and pedagogies, can connect to other disciplines and are conversant with research on how students learn.
The strength and character of undergraduate programs in technology is in mathematics, physics and other basic sciences. Most of our institutions tend to treat these as “also ran”. Adequate importance must be given to these building blocks.
Significantly, faculty leadership must be recognised as non-positional. Faculty leaders must generate and direct energy, be accountable for outcomes, create networking, build toward agreement, are emergent and flexible and base their action on information. They must be able to shape discourse and are willing to take risks.
Investing in technology is necessary. But only faculty can promote innovation, transform institutions to meet the challenges of a competitive, global, and increasingly digital economy.
Faculty is the strength of an institution. All available studies have shown that any investment that is made in faculty in particular and education in general, has not done any harm to any country’s image but has only enhanced the same on the global stage.