TO CHANGE OR NOT TO CHANGE

Shilpa came across an article one day which instantly caught her attention. It was stated that the technical
education regulator in India i.e., All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) was likely to cut down
the total number of undergraduate engineering seats by as much as 40% to deal with the problem of vacant
seats and decline in education standards.
We would like to bring it down to between 10 lakh and 11 lakh (one million and 1.1 million) from a little
over 16.7 lakh (1.67 million) now,1 said Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman of AICTE. The capacity should
come down for the betterment of allstudents, education providers and employers, he added.

As per the article, AICTEs decision was intended to improve the quality of education in various colleges.
As a number of engineering colleges in India lacked suitable infrastructure and hardly offered any
employable skills, companies who recruited students from such colleges were wary of the poor quality of
education.

It all fitted into the context as Shilpa remembered her recent interaction with Mr. Gupta, Director of NIIST
(North India Institute of Technology and Science), a reputed private engineering institution in North India.

There is a lot of competition in the market and we are trying to improve in every possible way. Our
infrastructure is better than most of the colleges in this region, our faculty members are knowledgeable and
we try not just to focus on the theoretical aspects but our aim is towards overall development of our students.
Though our intentions as well as our actions are in right direction, we still feel there is some missing link
because of which we are not seeing an improvement in the quality of our students said Mr. Gupta.

As a part of a consulting assignment Shilpa was approached by the management of NIIST to understand
and diagnose the issues within the academic delivery sub-system of the institution. The institute wanted her
to focus on the engineering division of the college as it formed the largest part of the institute. On initial
inquiry with some of the management staff certain problems were evident. One of the management officials
while sharing his views mentioned that the institute lacked qualified teachers and hence this impacted the
quality of the teaching. He was also concerned about the apparent flaws in some of the processes like faculty
feedback which were intricately linked with the academic delivery process. The top management was also
planning to scale the institute up to the level of a University and hence it became all the more necessary to
diagnose the current problems and make changes so as to improve the current processes.

Shilpa took the Directors consent and began interviewing various stakeholders of the institute expecting
to diagnose the issues involved in the academic delivery process. The main objective was to identify
constraining factors that impacted the quality of academic delivery and to suggest an action plan for
improvement. The target audience included top management executives, Heads of Department (HoDs),
faculty members and students while the key deliverable was to identify problem areas in academic delivery
and recommend corrective actions.

North India Institute of Technology and Science (NIITS)

North India Institute of Technology and Science (NIITS) was established in the year 2003. It rapidly gained
reputation as one of the better institutes in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The institute offered a wide

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Prashant K. Nanda, AICTE to cut number of engineering college seats by 600,000,
http://www.livemint.com/Politics/BphkOxYuir6OaYcTrBtldJ/AICTE-to-cut-number-of-engineering-college-seats-by-
600000.html, September 25th 2015 (accessed date: October 17th 2015)
range of courses in engineering disciplines like Mechanical, Electronics & Communication, Computer
Science, Information Technology, Civil and Chemical Engineering. The institute also offered a Masters
Degree in Business Administration to meet the growing requirements of management professionals. NIITS
also acquired the prestigious ISO 9001-2000 certification.

According to the institutes director Dr. Gupta, the main objectives of the institution were to promote quality
education and to groom students to become engineering professionals possessing competence, commitment
and confidence. NIIST strived to become an institution of excellence in technical education on a national
scale and produce competent professionals capable of making significant contribution to the society.

Trigger for change at NIIST

Educational institutions, like all other organisations are impacted by the external and internal environments.
In the case of NIIST the external trigger for change came from the intense competition which required
constant monitoring to identify areas for potential improvement. Recognizing this need the management of
NIIST invited Shilpa to review their systems, processes and to assess the need for change. According to the
management, the institute needed an external consultant to identify the underlying issues and problems.
Internal change agent would not have been able to provide an unbiased view of the same owing to their
proximity with the various challenges. Shilpa, with her background in Organization Development (OD)
was best suited to provide the much needed outside view of the institute.

To enhance the effectiveness of the institution, a planned and system wide effort which mainly involved
identifying the constraining factors was initiated. The main aim was to surface the factors that hindered the
quality of academic delivery and suggest an action plan for management of change.

Views of Heads of Department (HoDs) and Faculty

The backbone of any educational institution is its faculty members. Hence to find the real issues within the
academic delivery subsystem of the institute it was imperative to incorporate the perspective of faculty
members and HoDs. In the attempt to get to the core of the problem, Shilpa reached out to Head of
Departments (HODs) of the Mechanical engineering, Electrical engineering, Computer Science and
Information technology departments. She also interviewed couple of junior faculty members to get the
complete picture.

The HoDs and faculty members believed that majority of the students lacked interest in studies as well as
development of their soft skills. The institute took various initiatives by conducting personality
development sessions but most of the students did not attend these sessions even if it was in their own
interest. The faculty members wanted to conduct extra sessions to complete the course or to clear the doubts
however, very few students turned up for these sessions. The faculty members believed that most of the
students were not interested in enhancing their knowledge or skills but were mainly enrolled in the course
for the sake of getting a degree. HoDs responded to the low attendance issue by sending letters to parents
and conducting individual counselling sessions for the students, however the issue still persisted. Some of
the faculty members believed that though minimum attendance criteria was in place but it was not taken
seriously by either the management or the students.

The interviews also revealed that faculty members perceived the student intake to be of a very low calibre.
The reason attributed to this was their demographic background as well as their communication skills. Many
students belonged to semi-urban or rural backgrounds and faced problems while communicating in English
language. One of the faculty members had to say this: I have to take my lectures in Hindi and that is a
major problem. They (students) complain that we are not able to understand sirs lectures because he
speaks in English. I dont have any issue in delivering my lectures in Hindi but if I dont communicate in
English it is the students only who will suffer later on in getting jobs.
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To take care of this issue the HODs mentioned that Personality development sessions were regularly
conducted by the institute for all the students to improve their spoken English and communication skills.
Students were also encouraged to give presentations so as to enhance their confidence and communication
ability. When asked about the teaching methods used by the faculty it was found that the pedagogy mainly
used was the lecture method which was supplemented with discussions. Some of the faculty members also
used audio-visual aids and power point presentations while teaching. Few of them also mentioned that they
used or were planning to use methods like case studies etc. On the subject of course completion one of the
HODs stated that Though there are certain time constraints but the syllabus is generally completed by the
faculty.

Most faculty members and HoDS agreed that the institute was well-equipped in terms of infrastructure and
facilities. The library, computer labs, technical workshops etc. were top-notch. In order to bridge the gap
between industry and academia, the institute frequently organised expert talks and seminars. However,
since these were organized only for students from the third and fourth year, the students from the first two
years were found wanting in terms of industry awareness.

What caught Shilpas attention during the interview process was the revelation by the HoDs regarding the
quality of their teachers. One of the HODs said: There are many different subjects and different
specialisations and therefore sometimes its hard to find suitable and knowledgeable candidates for faculty
position The HoDs were of the view that there was an acute shortage of qualified and experienced teachers
in the institute. Most of the faculty members were found to be low on experience.

Shilpa was also surprised to learn that faculty feedback was not taken from all the students but only few
selected students were asked to provide the feedback. Those who do not attend the classes are not eligible
to give feedback. So, we select students on the basis of their attendance mentioned the head of Mechanical
Engineering department. The HoDs also stated that the management took steps to improve quality of
teaching based on the student feedback.

Another important theme which emerged out of the interaction was that the work load on the teachers was
quite high. Shilpa was taken aback to learn that the faculty-student ratio was highly inadequate. Also, since
administrative activities took most of the time of the faculty this impacted their academic growth and
development. The excessive administrative pressure also had a negative impact on the quality of teaching.

The other area which suffered was the research output of faculty members. To quote one of the junior
faculty members I am doing a little bit of research work but the environment required for that is completely
missing here. Most of our time is engaged in administrative work. Thats why, nothing is improving as such
and hence the quality is degrading. The HoDs on the other hand stated that a research promotion policy
was in place in order to promote the faculty development and research orientation. Faculty members were
sponsored by the institute for higher education and also to attend seminars, symposiums and conferences
outside the institute.

NIIST from the perspective of its students

Shilpas aim was to get a holistic view of the problem and hence it was imperative to take into the account
the students perspective and to know the problems they faced. She interviewed students across all the four
years of course.

She eased into the interviews by asking general questions like teaching pedagogy. It was found that the
faculty members followed traditional pedagogy for teaching in class. Chalk-board method was most
prevalent pedagogy. However, some students mentioned that a few of the teachers did come prepared with
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 power point presentations in the class as well. Overall, the most faculty members followed the traditional
chalk-and-talk methodology.

The critical issue was around softer skills and the development of employability competencies. Shilpa tried
to understand the student perspective on personality development classes, opportunities for presentations
by the students etc. According to the students personality development classes were rarely conducted. Even
if they were conducted, it was not mandatory for all the students to attend it. Shilpa learnt that the
management and faculty made little attempt to convince students to attend these sessions. Besides
personality development classes, students believed that they were rarely given opportunities to make
presentations. Some students even mentioned that the faculty members taking up the personality
development course themselves were not serious and at times even urged the students not to attend these
sessions. The upper management takes it (personality development classes) seriously but the teachers are
not serious about it. They ask students to bunk or not attend these personality development classes. They
(faculty) say that this is a free lecture. They themselves dont know what to teach in a personality
development class mentioned a disappointed student.

Practical exposure constitutes the opportunity given to students in terms of industrial visits, technical
seminars, workshops etc. Shilpa found from the interviews that industrial visits were conducted for the
students only from the third year of the programme. Moreover, these visits were very infrequent. Students
from the first and second years had no opportunity for industrial interaction. Though some good technical
workshops and seminars were conducted the students felt that these were not sufficient enough to provide
them with required practical exposure. Furthermore, some students mentioned that since the industrial visits
were not compulsory for the students the turnout for these was quite low.

In terms of the infrastructure, the views of students seemed to be consonant with those of the faculty
members and HoDs. Shilpa found that a majority of the students were satisfied with the college
infrastructure. However, they were constrained by the lack of availability of books other than the course
books in library. However, the students were satisfied with the laboratories and availability of apparatus
and other devices required for practical classes.

Based on the interviews Shilpa had with the students, she found that the level of interest among the students
was quite low. The students were not interested in attending classes, seminars and visits. It was evident from
the conversation that the students did not take the attendance rules seriously. When asked about the
attendance rules, one student replied:
In the last semester it was not compulsory but in this semester minimum 75% attendance should be there.
I dont know what will happen but our seniors also dont attend the classes so I dont think we will face
any problems related to attendance.

Clearly the signals sent by the management regarding attendance were either disregarded or were mixed in
the first place. Overall, the students had a rather lackadaisical approach toward academic discipline in
general.

It was already evident that the faculty feedback process did not involve all students. It now emerged that
the faculty members themselves decided which students would give their feedback. Students were selected
on the basis of their attendance or marks but one student had to say this I am a regular student but I have
never filled up these forms. Faculty selects few students and they have to fill it up. Only five to ten students
in each class were allowed to give the faculty feedback. It appeared in that students might be hesitant to give
accurate feedback as they feared getting identified and believed that their internal marks might suffer if they
rate a faculty negatively.

The views of students in course completion were also divergent to those of the faculty members. Many
students opined that in many of the subjects the syllabus was not completed by the faculty members.
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However, not all students blamed their faculty for this. They were of the view that the efforts were taken by
their course instructors to complete the syllabus but due to government holidays and non- seriousness of
other students the pace of the course got hampered. Few reported that some teachers were simply not
interested in completing the syllabus and asked the students to refer to the guide books instead.

Student interviews also revealed that some of the teachers were inexperienced and hence were able to impart
only bookish knowledge. Practical aspects were not taught by these new faculty members since they
themselves lacked experience. One of the students mentioned, Faculty are very new over here. They are
not experienced they try to communicate with the students but you know experience matters a lot even in
delivering lectures. They just teach what has been written in the books word by word. They dont give
examples and dont use case studies to teach us. Only bookish knowledge is imparted and the practical
aspects are not taught by the faculty. Even the labs are not very practically oriented.

The issues that emerged from the interviews prompted Shilpa to ask the students about the power-distance
between them and the management. Students were of the view that the management hardly took any
initiative to interact with students or seek their views on matters of academic significance. Head of
Departments (HODs) sometimes interacted with students but the higher level management never mingled
with the students. Students felt that they were not comfortable approaching the management as the
interaction never happened.

View from the top: The managements perspective

After gaining insights about the various issues from both the students as well as faculty members Shilpa
believed that it was important to explore the viewpoint of top management as well. Though she had constant
interaction with the Director but for this purpose she formally interviewed Mrs. Singh, Principal and Dean
of NIIST.

Mrs. Singh believed that the main focus of the management was to identify opportunities to enhance the
quality of education. She felt that while placements and career orientation were also important, it was more
important to focus on the quality of teaching. The top management believed that the institute not only gave
attention to the course contents but was also dedicated to cover the areas beyond the syllabus so as to give
their students an edge over students from other institutes. For the purpose of overall development of the
students, the institute strived towards providing good infrastructure like library and laboratories. However,
Mrs. Singh also mentioned that these facilities required constant up gradation and this was constrained by
budgetary requirements.

Mrs. Singh was of the view that the quality of faculty members in the institute was not up to the mark.
There was a shortage of qualified faculty members. In fact some of the faculty members were pursuing
teaching just as a secondary option and were simultaneously preparing for some other exams which also
explained their lack of interest in the job. In her words: I think that some of the faculty members are not
serious and are just passing time over here until they get a job in some company. Mostly we have young
faculty members who are into teaching just because they could not get a corporate job.

She also accepted that their faculty was overloaded with both academic and administrative works. The
faculty-student ratio being low was also found to be one of the concerns of the management. This though
was the classical chicken and egg situation. High quality and experienced academicians were not easily
available and this impacted the brand image of the institute, while the brand image could not improve only
based on infrastructure.

Though the management was keenly interested towards development of their faculty members, they were
also of the view that many of the faculty members were not interested in carrying any kind of research

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work. To promote the culture of research and development and provide the opportunity for the same the
institute organized faculty development programmes from time to time. An incentive scheme to promote
research paper presentations and publications was also put in place.

Mrs. Singh was of the view that overall the students lacked interest in learning and academics. Also, since
majority of the students were from semi-urban or rural backgrounds they lacked the necessary etiquettes
and were not highly self-motivated. When asked about the attendance rules she stated that, minimum 75%
attendance is required by every student. It is relaxed to 60% if there is some genuine problem. This
relaxation was often left to the discretion of the HoD and sent conflicting signals to the students about the
seriousness of attendance in the institute.

The top management also believed that practical exposure through guest lectures, industry visits and
seminars were necessary. Mrs. Singh mentioned that, We organise guest lectures for our students. In the
orientation programme also we call industry people to give the lectures. Apart from this, second year
onwards we organise expert talks and industrial visits are also conducted almost every semester.

Mrs. Singh also confirmed that the management believed in taking feedback from a selected group of
students. These students were selected by the faculty members based on their attendance. Overall the
management seemed to be satisfied with the present process of the feedback system.

To change or not to change

As Shilpa reflected over the data from interviews, she was wondering how useful the action research process
had been. Was there any convergence between the views of the three main stakeholder groups? Would she
be able to identify the problems which afflicted NIIST or was this simply a case of conflict in expectations
of the three stakeholders? Did NIIST actually need an incremental change or was the institute in need of
radical transformation? What were the challenges that lay ahead of her and the institute? Shilpa realised
that she herself was a young OD practitioner and the success of this consulting assignment could make or
break her reputation as a change agent. The stakes were high not only for NIIST but for her as well and
time was short as the next admission season round the corner.