A Roadmap to Industry Based Curriculum in Higher Education Through Public-Private Partnership Model
 
Mr. Vibhanshu1*, Dr. Ruchi Rayat2
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Post Graduate Diploma in Management, GNIOT Institute of Management Studies (GIMS),Greater Noida, U.P.
E-mail: Jhavibhanshu80@gmail.com
2 Professor, Department of Post Graduate Diploma in Management, GNIOT Institute of Management Studies (GIMS), Greater Noida, U.P.
E-mail: ruchi_rayat@yahoo.co.in
Abstract - Higher education in any country plays an important role in nation building. Education system has a social agenda to develop its human resource in a better way to meet the requirements of society. Several reforms were introduced to promote quality in higher education and make education accessible to every society. The continuous amendments in education policies are required to meet the present expectations of industry. The traditional approach of rote learning and memory level teaching shall not work out in the modern times where the requirements of industry are changing frequently. There is a need of an hour for the higher institutions to shift their approach from academic based curriculum to industry-based curriculum. Many higher education institutions are struggling to provide quality, affordable education and research to its end users. Thus, a collaborative approach needs to be followed in the form of public-private partnership model for facilitating practical learning in higher institutions and preparing the future budding managers to bridge the gap between skills required to meet industry expectations and the skills they possess. The aim of this paper is to explore about the PPP model for promoting industry-based curriculum in academics. The study is purely secondary in nature followed with exploratory research-design for giving a broader view on implementation of PPP model in higher institutions. The present study provides an integrated process through which the effectiveness and working of PPP model is well-explained.
Keywords - Higher Education System, Public-Private Partnership (PPP), Higher Institutions, Industry-Based Curriculum
INTRODUCTION
India has wider network of higher education institutions and play a significant role in promoting education to all. The objective of any education system is to improve its quality of human resources and develop the various skills set to face challenges at workplace. The term higher education is a broad umbrella term that covers tertiary level education that is imparted after 12 years of schooling. For imparting knowledge various universities and institutions were set up by the governing body known as Higher Institutions. The entire higher education ecosystem falls under the purview of Ministry of Education. After China and USA, India is third largest country to have higher enrolment rates in higher education system. After the announcement of first National Education Policy which laid down the foundation of higher institutions under the chairmanship of Dr. D.S. Kothari popularly known as Kothari Commission, the India progressed at a rapid pace in terms of providing quality education to its society at a large scale (Gupta & Gupta, 2012). According to the report released by by All India Survey on Higher Education 2019-20, there was a spike in gross enrolment ratio especially, in case of female enrolment rate. It shows that society is understanding the importance of education for all. Any education system is based on the curriculum framework being drafted by the institutional bodies to deliver content and achieve the teaching-learning outcomes. Curriculum plays an important role in ensuring the learning outcomes and measure the progress of students from all types of backgrounds. Therefore, it is pertinent for institutional bodies to ensure that the curriculum is drafted in such a manner which serves the requirements of industry as well. The curriculum nowadays demands for professional learning in academics and well as corporate world. The focus on graduate capability and employability skills has led to the introduction of several measures to embed in curriculum in order to match the skills set & competencies of graduates with their job role. This paradigm shift in higher education system is now demanding to introduce Industry-based curriculum in academics (Lawson, Fallshaw , Papadopoulos, Taylor, & Zanko, 2011).
An attempt has been made to build a specific Industry-based curriculum design through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. Public-Private Partnership model is a recent development in education sector that emphasizes on collaboration of both public as well as private sector to jointly work together for the development of education sector. The concept of PPP is not a recent phenomenon as it was already adopted and in practice in various sectors. A recent development of Initially PPP model was adopted in the development of sectors like railways, airports, roads, and many other infrastructure projects. PPP model in education sector brought a lot of reforms which has its own advantages and disadvantages. The objective of this research is to explore the implications of PPP model in education sector and also to describe how the implementation of PPP model in drafting Industry-based Curriculum imposes several challenges for its beneficiaries.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This research raises two questions on the implementation of PPP model in Higher Education System:
  1. How PPP model works in the context of Higher Institutions?
  2. How PPP model can be well applied in designing industry-based curriculum in higher education system?
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The present paper explores the conceptual knowledge of both dependent and independent variable. For the purpose of study, Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model is taken as an independent variable and Industry-based Curriculum as dependent variable. The exploratory research design has been followed through extensive review of secondary sources available on the different sources. Various journals, reports and articles were referred to conclude the findings of current study. Google scholar and semantic scholar is used for collecting the database and referring the same in present study.
PPP MODEL IN HIGHER INSTITUTIONS
Higher institutions play a significant role in education system in India. After the revision of India’s education policy and introduction of National Education Policy, 2020 the India become an attractive destination for higher education across the globe. The NEP, 2020 aims to raise the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) to 50% by 2035. This will lead to the creation of more public and private institutions for bridging the demand & supply gap in education (Vijayalakshmi, 2013). Public-Private Partnership is based on the approach of mutual collaboration with having common goal and to achieve that goal, it is important to have shared knowledge gain, adopting mutually agreed roles and responsibilities. The PPP model is being encouraged due to the public sector inability to meet the adequate resource management and poor infrastructural facilities. Public-Private Partnership provides various benefits in the form of sharing joint resources, strengthen infrastructure facilities and providing quality education to the society.
The ineffective teaching-learning methods and poor infrastructural facilities in public educational institutions creating hindrances in learning. The focus of any educational institutions and its curriculum is to prepare its learners and their skill enhancement to fulfil the requirements of the industry. It is /important to develop various skills set require to perform in any industry (Robertson & Verger, 2012). Merely theoretical learning and knowledge enhancement shall not be enough to cope up with the dynamics of industry. It is a common practice in our education system to encourage rote learning and impart knowledge as the requirements of content. Due to these reasons industries keep complaining about the lack of skills set and potential in new comers. Therefore, PPP model in higher institutions is introduced to remove such lacunae and develop the skills in students as per the industry requirements (Kulkarni, Gaitonde, Kotturshettar, & G, 2019).
Higher education plays an important role in this changing global scenario where its top responsibility is to prepare the learners for future. For development, curriculum plays a significant role in academics. Through this study, an emphasis is given to change the current pattern of curriculum and frame it with a more responsible approach which must satisfy the requirements of 21st century education with parallel to the expectations of industry. An integrated and collaborative approach needs to be followed for curriculum design which must follow the participation of all stakeholders in drafting the curriculum design, analysing what industry requires as a skill set in learners, and ensuring learning outcomes are well achieved (Kumar & Rewari, 2022).
FRAMEWORK OF INDUSTRY-BASED CURRICULUM THROUGH PPP
Curriculum design is defined as the advanced planning, organization and preparation of learning strategies, processes, contents and experiences towards defined learning and outcomes. From the academics’ point of view, a lot of evidence shows there is a need of hour to put high efforts towards formulation of best practices to promote industry-based curriculum in higher institutions. Curriculum in academics plays an important role in serving the purpose of industry needs. It provides learners skills for employment and positive work values require to meet the demands of changing industry scenario. Recent trend in education sector demanding the collaborative framework for curriculum design with a perfect blend of inputs from various academicians and industrialists (Manivannan & Suseendran, 2017). For the purpose of framing Industry-based curriculum, it is important to carry out the procedures in order to effectively designing the curriculum. Curriculum design is creating a holistic plan for the environments where learning happens. The focus of Industry-based curriculum should be on developing communication skills, overall personality development, hands-on training sessions, soft-skill development which helps learners in getting placed. The value-added and skill-enhancement programs must made compulsory to adapt learners according to the needs of industry. There is high need of an hour for both academicians and industrialists to follow collaborative approach and join hands for drafting industry-based curriculum and thereby helps in achieving the learning outcomes. The aim of any curriculum should not only be facilitating in-house development of learners rather prepare them globally. Research demonstrates that curriculum modules execution will be emphatically influenced by including teacher, to fluctuating degrees, in framing curricular things and learning circumstances in their own particular classrooms (Manivannan & Suseendran, 2017). In the present scenario of higher education in India, curriculum-design is effectively followed with the theory of change approach that focuses on collaborative learning, student-centred curriculum and make it more industry-based learning. The application of a theory of change approach to curriculum design is very beneficial but equally problematic due to variations in its applicability. The theory of change follows a sophisticated approach in order to effectively applying the element of change in curriculum framework. Following the various arguments, most of the time it is being concluded that states are unable to meet the rising demand of education without collaborating with the private leaders in education sector (Chattopadhay & Nogueira, 2014).
Higher education system in India laid down the foundation base for career enhancement and guiding youth to set future goals in which skill set plays an important role. Due to the higher potential require to apply the skill set in industry, several vocational training programs are in high demands and the academic curriculum must cover these vocational programs as an integrated course structure to achieve the learning outcomes. When it comes to effectively integrating the vocational courses into main curriculum, it is significant to strengthen the public-private partnerships in order to extend its frontiers world-wide (Oviawe, 2018). Practical learning with the purpose of skill enhancement and sound theoretical knowledge serves to equip students to face real-time difficulties. Integrating the academic curriculum with Industry-based curriculum is relevant to understudy focused approach. Experts understand the process of change by analysing the emerging patterns and understanding future trends (Manivannan & Suseendran, 2017). According to the various sources studied for possibility of engaging academicians and industrialists for curriculum design through PPP model, researcher wants to establish a correlation between Industry-based curriculum and PPP model. The relationship between both the variables are well understood by following an integrated process which consists of:
  1. The PPP model in designing industry-based curriculum emphasises to follow integrated approach for drafting course and program outcomes. The CO-PO mapping in curriculum design plays a very important role in achieving the learning outcomes. This should be the first step in collaborative approach towards industry-based curriculum through PPP. A two-way dialogue should be encouraged between academicians and industrialists in order of well preparing the course and program outcomes and the same must be compulsorily applicable in every universities and other higher institutions.
  2. The course and program outcomes must follow with designing the syllabus which mostly focus more on practical and real-time problems and less on theoretical knowledge. All the practical exposure must be based on hands-on training session for skill enhancement. The course structure must consist of several value-added programs, including skill & ability enhancement disciplines.
  3. All the programmes specified in course structure must follow the well-planned and structured learning materials. To impart learning, both academicians and industrialists altogether collaborate on teaching-learning platforms. A mutual exchange programmes must be encouraged to develop industry-related skills into the new potential learners.
  4. The role of PPP in collaborating for industry-based curriculum should not only be limited to designing effective curriculum and course and program outcomes rather the mutual participation may also be applied on Infrastructural development where public sector will focus on learning development and content designing and private sector provides platform for effective content delivery.
CONCLUSION
The recent development in higher education system demands a responsible approach in drafting the Industry-based curriculum. A theory of change element is vital in curriculum-design. The present research focuses on encouragement of industry-based curriculum in higher institutions through Public-Private Partnership (PPP). PPP model is a recent development phenomenon in education sector as public institutions lacking in the effective delivery of course and learning outcomes. The research is purely secondary in nature and is based on the review of various sources including journal articles, book chapters and reports. The research is explored with the help of previous work done in the relevant area. The PPP model in higher education system brought a major advancement in education system of India where learning is now more industry-oriented to prepare the new comers with various skill sets through mutual collaboration of both public & private sector. The findings of the study highlighted the role of public-private partnerships in designing industry-based curriculum for learners with focusing more on adding certain value-added programs and skill-enhancement program for the students. Also the exchange programs and participation of industry in academics is key to effective implementation of industry-based curriculum. Researchers has suggested to follow an integrated process which is the main thrust of present study for public-private participation in curriculum design. The process emphasizes mutual collaboration of PPP in course-program outcomes, adding more skill enhancement programmes in course structure, mutual exchange programmes for delivery of content and participation of learners in real-time problems of industry. The implications of implementing PPP model in higher education system can work as a future scope of present study where its effectiveness and success rate can be better tested with the help of more practical approach and through primary work.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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