Regional Summit on Education to focus on management of higher education institutions
Confederation of Indian Industry Coimbatore Zone along with the CII Institute of Quality Bangalore organised a two day Regional summit on Quality in Education with the theme ‘Managing higher educational institutions: The Quality Way’ at The Hotel Residency on 29-30 January 2009.
With a number of environmental forces driving change within and across countries and their higher education. Higher education environments across the globe are frequently described as turbulent and dynamic. These changes have served to put the issue of quality management firmly on the agenda of many higher education institutions. There is no universal consensus on how best to manage quality within Higher education. The majority of research conducted on higher education quality management has been undertaken within single national contexts despite the fact that higher education is increasingly viewed as an international business. Adoption of a variety of quality management practices within different countries and their Higher Education Institutions. Most of the results from these analyses suggest current environmental forces are encouraging the use of quality models created for industry. This review questions whether it is time to rethink our current approaches to quality management in higher education. Further it may be time to rethink current approaches to quality management in Higher education to ensure that the quality of teaching and learning is not neglected.
While inaugurating the summit Prof. R Radhakrishnan, Vice Chancellor, Anna University Coimbatore, said more industry institute interactions should take place and learning has to be shared mutually. He also shared various initiatives taken up by his university. Mr. C R Swaminathan, Deputy Chairman, CII Southern Region said “we must let our life speak and for our life to speak we must have quality life and only education can give us quality life. Mr. N Srinivasan, Special Adviser CII Institute of Quality reiterated the commitment of CII for this helping the education sector by training, counseling and cluster approach by its team of Counsellors.
Prof. Sujatha Ramadorai, Member, National Knowledge Commission & Professor, TIFR, Mumbai, shared her views on Management of Higher education institutions : Challenges & opportunities, Mr B Venkataraman, Director, National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB), Quality Council of India, How institutions can leverage accreditations & certifications ?. Offshore campus management experiences from BITS Pilani Dubai campus was shared by Dr M Ramachandran and NIIT Experience by Dr Parimal Mandke, Dean Academics. Two interesting case study from Panruti Municipality by former Chairman Mr. R Panchavarnam and Dr M P Ravindra from Infosys Technologies Limited shared their experiences with the delegates.
Mr T A Saji, CEO, Microhard Services Pvt Ltd and Mr M Sivakumar President – I School Division Everonn Systems Pvt Ltd shared how institutions can leverage technology for better management of their processes. The summit will culminate with a panel discussion on “Panel Discussion : Managing Higher Education Institutions in India : Actions now”.
The summit reflected the need for quality enhancement of all aspects of management of Higher education institutions. It also underlined the fact we need to have more cross functional approach and sharing of best practices by individuals / organizations that have stood by this cause and delivered in their own style.
This 5th Edition created a dynamic learning and networking opportunities for over 100 decision makers such as Administrators, Management Committee Members, Principals and Teachers from Higher education institutions, NGO’s and corporate across south India.