Educational Management through Good & Best Practices in Higher Education Institutions

INTRODUCTION

With higher education becoming an international service, there is growing concern the world over about quality, standards and recognition for Educational management that refers to the administration of the education system in which a group combines human and material resources to supervise, plan, strategize, and implement structures to execute an education system. Consequent upon this trend, the debate on how benchmarks have to be evolved for ascertaining and assuring quality at different levels of higher education is significant. This paper highlights the initiative of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) to promote the concept of best practices benchmarking. It also sets the stage for a discussion of the identification, sustenance, dissemination and adaptation of best practices and of their transference from one system to the other. Benchmarking Benchmarking is an increasingly popular tool in industry and is used extensively by both manufacturing and service organisations. The Xerox Corporation in the United States of America (USA) originated the concept of benchmarking. From the 1990s benchmarking has become a management watchword, with increasing number of seminars and published literature devoted to it. Benchmarking is an ongoing systematic means for measuring and comparing the work processes of an organization. The scene for benchmarking can be set, by considering three fundamental performance issues articulated by the following questions:

• Are we performing better than we have ever performed?

• Are there any other organisations that are performing well and from whom we can learn?

• Are there any practices that will improve our performance?

A ―good practice‟ in a higher educational institution is an activity of the HEI commended through national Audit & Accreditation processes. A „best practice‟ is a good practice which is time-tested and institutionalized according to the quality benchmarking stipulated by the national and International Audit and Accreditation processes. They add value to the HEI and its stakeholders. They can be adapted and transferred to other organizational settings. The terminologies of Good and Best practices are conventionally used interchangeably. However, the „Good or Best practice‟ should be defined in terms of a complete Approach-deployment-Results-Improvements (AdRI) cycle followed by has been demonstrated as benefitting stakeholders. Benchmarking or o t h e r external points of reference indicate that the „Good and Best Practice‟ and consequential results are superior to most comparators. The practice is to be fully understood and verified that the outcomes are a deliberate consequence of the said practice rather than serendipity and the success of the practice has been independently verified through the audit process or reviews. Educational Management The components of educational management are

• Educational Planning

Being the first aspect in the scope of educational management, planning implies a basic function that is how the aims and objectives are to be realized. Before launching upon a particular educational programme and implementing it the person or authority in-charge or at the helm of affairs is required to take decisions about the methods and strategies for effectively and efficiently achieving the objectives. This means planning has to be done for managing the total educational programme and for this, the basic facts and figures, background, date and profile are necessary.

• Educational Administration,

Educational administration is another vital task of educational management so far its scope is concerned. It plays a vital role in making management of every educational programme grand success. It is a specialized set of organisational functions whose primary purpose is to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of relevant educational services as well as implementation of legislative policies through planning, decision making and leadership behaviour. This keeps an organisation to make focus on predetermined objectives of the programme or system. According to Graham Balfore, ―Educational Administration is to enable the right pupils to receive the right educational administration is to enable the right teacher at a cost within the means of the state under conditions which will enable the pupils best to profit by their training.‖ J.B. Sears, to him ―Educational Administration contains much that we mean by the word government and is closely related in content to such words as supervision, planning, oversight, direction, organisation, control, guidance and regulation.‖ interaction, among conditions or groups having a collective identity pursuing interest and achieving given tasks and co-ordinated through a system of authority. Organisations are social units deliberately constructed and reconstructed to seek specific goals. Here it is essential to mention that the educational organisations or institutions are also considered as the social organisations. So schools, colleges, universities and training institutions may well be considered as social organisations. Educational organisation means two things; one is the educational institution and the other is organisation of resources.

• Educational Direction,

It is essential that there must be an authority or an order or a policy for providing direction to the management of every educational programme and for taking decisions in solving the problems. For this direction is necessary for giving leadership in order to implement the programmes and carrying out the entire management. Democratisation of management seeks to encourage the pride, enjoyment and growth among the individuals working in the organisation. Each individual must work according to his needs, interests and capabilities. Educational Co-Ordination: For making smooth management of every educational programme for resulting in adequate realization of its goals or objectives, there is need of ensuring co-ordination and co-operation among the multifarious resources. Through this coordination all facilities will be unified and all services are harmonized. So through this aspect of educational management different kinds of resources especially human resources have to be interrelated or co-ordinated for utilizing the resources properly in an effective manner. Educational Supervision: Educational administration and supervision are now regarded as the total process of making any educational programme a grand success. For this, there is the need of ensuring and maintaining good inter-personal relationships between the administrator and supervisor, the supervisor and teachers, teachers and pupils, school and community etc. Educational supervision is the means to co-ordinate stimulate and direct the growth of the teachers, to stimulate and direct the growth of every individual pupil through the exercise of his talents towards the Controlling is exercised through proper technique that is the evaluation. Controlling is not similar to evaluation but it is meant to fulfill the purposes of evaluation. In order to fulfill the purposes of evaluation, the techniques of control are the policies, the budget, auditing, time table, curriculum, personal records etc. Educational controlling involves the human elements in relation to the management of an educational programme. Both men and women involved in the educational programme should have to discharge their duties efficiently and effectively by being controlled. Educational Evaluation: Being the last but not the least aspect of educational management, educational evaluation is an integral part of it as it determines the degree of realisation of educational objectives or goals as well as the effectiveness of it; for this there must be evaluation short-term or long- term, periodic or continuous and formal or informal. This is necessary for bringing about improvement as desired in the management of educational institutions in the light of past experiences that may be failure or success or both. It is also desirable that both internal and external agencies need be involved in evaluating the achievement and performance of the individuals concerned with management. Various systems and subsystems should be assessed and reviewed from time to time. For this evaluation of students achievement and teachers performance should be done in a comprehensive and continuous way.

GOOD & BEST PRACTICES

1. Goal: The goal of this practice is to appreciate the work done by the teaching staff, non- teaching staff and students of the institute and motivate them to excel in their areas of expertise. This practice would ensure continuous improvement in their performance as per the quality policy to achieve the Vision and Mission of the institute. 2. The Context: The institute believes that a motivated workforce (Staff and Students) can be a significant factor in institute‟s success. When staff and students are motivated to work at higher levels of their skills and abilities, the institute as a whole runs more efficiently and is more effective at achieving its objectives and goals. For this reason, the institute has understood the power of reward systems and how they are helpful in influencing Students and Staff behavior. Rewards are positive outcomes that are earned as a result of staff‟s and students‟ performance and achievement. These rewards are aligned with 3. The Practice: The institute has constituted the following rewards for its staff and students. The mode of reward is in terms of appreciation certificates and mementos. I. Best Teacher II. Best Class III. Best Guardian Faculty Members (GFM) IV. Best Department V. Best HOD VI. 100% University Result VII. Best Outgoing Student VIII. Topper of the Class IX. Subject Topper X. Best Class III, Class IV employees Best Practices By Institute:

• Travel grants are availed by faculty from university/UGC to attend international conferences

• Remote Center of IIT-Bombay to conduct faculty development programs and workshopsfor improvement in teaching-learning process.

• NSS-Unit of the Technical Campus has been very active in maintaining objective of Swachha Bharat Abhiyan. NSS volunteers actively associated in making reports on Annual Status of

• Education Report-2014 (ASER). They are camping in the remotest village of India.

• Use of learning recourses, multimedia and internet recourses for teaching is in place.

• Provision of project laboratories in each department to horn the practical and simulation skills.

• Ns solution (Tata consultancy Services) adopted for institutional updation and automation.

 Students' feedback about teachers' performance and follow-on action implemented.

• The institution is NAAC accredited for five years and sustenance of quality in Technical Education, IQAC (Internal Quality Assurance Cell) is established.

• Provision of tuition free education to students from within distance of 10 KMs from the Institute exists.

• Financial assistance to the poor and needy students is made available.

• Earn-While-Learn scheme for deserving students implemented.

• Suggestion boxes outside the office of Director-General, Deans and Heads are placed to havecontinuous feedback for improvement.

• IET Bhaddal Technical campus has Memorandum of Understanding with M/s Vee Software

• Solutions Pvt. Ltd. for JAVA and Advanced Java and Harksh Technologies for CMS based training.

• The value education cell has been setup at IET Bhaddal with the following objectives:

• To live fulfilling life by living in harmony with oneself, family, society and the nature

Good Practice Database (GPDB):

• To ensure human beings valuable participation and contribution to the national and worldwide growth

• The Cell has organized following conferences/seminars/workshops

• National Seminars on Human Value and Emerging Trends in Technical Education are regularly organized.

• Two days Awareness workshop on human value and professional ethics are frequently held.

• 8 days Teachers Orientation program on Universal Human Values and Professional Ethics are also held with financial support of PTU-Jalandhar

• National Conference on Moral and Ethical Values for professionals has been

promotes students and faculty to organize regularly conferences, workshops, seminars and expert talks for the benefit of all concerns. The proceedings of above activities are transferred in the form of books for ready reference of the students.

• Ragging is an undesirable social offence which is totally banned in the campus.

• Keeping in view the public notice of AICTE on curbing the menace of ragging, a centralized committees of Senior Faculty is constituted to check the ragging in the Campus

• Contacts numbers of senior faculty members are displayed in the campus, canteen, hostels and in the buses to bring the matter, if any to the notice of authorities

• Transparency ensured in evaluating students‟ academic performance

• Internal academic audit at campus level is introduced.

• Appraisal of teachers‟ performance by the students twice in an academic year

• Wi-Fi campus

• 24 hours availability of ambulances for medical care of students and faculty and staff

• Permission to participate in national and Internal conferences, seminars, workshops as per institute norms

• 24 hrs. electricity and water supply is ensured in the campus by arranging the normal supply with DG sets.

It is an „academic online platform‟ which contributes to sharing experiences and serves the purpose of institutional improvement. It is a collaborative project with searchable collection of verified Good and Best Practices. With the permission of the auditees, it is made freely available via the A&A Good Practice database. Why GPDB It is a felt need for the higher educational system of the country, as there is no publicly accessible Good Practice database. It provides improvement efforts as an appropriate acknowledgement both domestically and across the world. It is a key resource for HE practitioners and managers and the first point of reference for Auditees seeking information on good practices. Good Practice format 1. Standardized formatting Template 2. Template contains the following sub-headings: Goals, Context, Practice, Evidence of Success, 3. Resources required and notes 4. Linkage to the Contributor ‟s Institution 5. Contact details of an appropriate person. 6. Useful for benchmarking purposes; 7. Resource for developing new policy and practice and 8. useful for reviewing existing policy and practice. Impact Assessment of GPDB It is documented through the „feedback from stakeholders‟ consisting of the following: (a) instructions are clear; (b) satisfied with the process of contributing to GPdB; (c) very worthwhile tool for replication; (d) well-structured and compiled; (e) quick and easy to access; Good & best practices as Institutional Quality Index Best practices, the practices which add commendable value to an institution and its various stakeholders, are considered as reliable benchmarks or standards of quality. The best institutions are those which use them widely. To put it differently, institutional excellence in higher education is the aggregate of the best practices followed in different areas of institutional performance. The national Assessment and Accreditation Council (nAAC) is advocating the best practices benchmarking approach for quality enhancement in higher education. The measurement and improvement. The prevailing quality management systems in higher education also can benefit from this tool. The best practices as benchmarks help institutions to find their anchor for self-improvement. By using a consistent approach and identifying processes which are generic and relevant, irrespective of the organization and how it is structured, it becomes possible to benchmark across sectoral boundaries like geography size and others. The overall purpose and intent of the Best Practices benchmarking can be summarized as follows: a) Development of an understanding of the fundamentals that lead to success; b) Focus on continuous efforts towards improvement; and c) Management of the overall change process to close the gap between an existing practice of the institution and that of the best-in-class institutions with reference to the most relevant key performance variables.

BEST PRACTICE SERIES BY NAAC

The national Assessment and Accreditation Council (nAAC) through its A&A of several higher educational institutions has identified and appreciated number of „Best Practices‟. This resulted in a series of publications on the „Best Practices‟ assessed on different aspects (i) Curricular Aspects; (ii) Evaluation of Students; (iii) Student feedback and Participation; (iv) IQAC activities; (v) Library & Information Services; and (vi) Community engagement, Some of them are highlighted here:

CURRICULAR ASPECTS

Some of the „Best Practices‟ identified under the „CurricularAspects‟ are: (a) Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) in universities as a tool for enhanced career prospects; (b) Curriculum for Experiential Learning; (e) Research integrated Project-based Curriculum; (f) Training need analysis for Curriculum development; (g) Curriculum for Learners with different learningabilities; (h) Curriculum Restructuring for Enhanced careeropportunities (i) Curricular restructuring towards holistic education; (j) Integrated Pedagogical Model; and (k) Gurukulam Practices in Modern Curriculum. Evaluation of Students Examples of „Best Practices‟ under this category are: (i) Internal Evaluation System to make examinations an integral part of Teaching-Learning Process; (ii) On-Line Examinations for Internal Evaluations; (iii) Integrated Software Solution for Examination Processing System; (iv) Electronic distribution of Examination Papers (EdEP); (v) Tatkal System; (vi) Comprehensive Internal Evaluation System; (vii) Question Paper related Grievance RedressalMechanism; (viii) Simultaneous conduct of examinations andevaluations; (ix) Immediate Supplementary Examination after publication of the results. Students Feedback & Participation The salient features highlighted are: (a) 24x7 feedback System; (b) Evaluation of teachers by students; (c) Residential system; (d) Online Student feedback Mechanism; execution of programs; (g) Interactive Quality Education Management; (h) Quality Assurance through Student involvement; (i) Students‟ Senate; (j) Involvement of alumni in student development; (k) Green Campus through student participation; (l) Helping the economically-disadvantaged; (m) Student Quality Circles. IQAC Activities The quality initiatives of IQACs are: (i) Planning of IQAC through democratic methods; (ii) Business and entrepreneurship motivation training and research centre; (iii) Organizational arrangements in Internal QualityAssurance Cell; (iv) newsletter of IQAC showing Quality Initiatives and Endeavors; (v) Thirst for Knowledge: „JIGYASA‟; (vi) ―Skill-Will‖ Club; (vii) ICT as Teaching-Learning Process; (viii) IQAC–Tapping innovative ideas of faculty; (ix) Models of students‟ participation in decision making; (x) Students as important stakeholders in quality initiatives; (xi) Role of Parent Teacher Association (PTA) in faculty enrichment; (xii) Research and development Cell; its constitution & functions; (xiii) dry Run Inspection or Annual Internal QualityAudit. Environmental Aspects Best practices followed in AIT Green Initiative installed in the power house which gives power factor of unity. Almost all street lights, toilets and corridors are provided with the LED fittings. Auto flush and auto cut offsystem is installed in the hostel toilets to save electricity and water. Use of renewable energy Interactive solar power generating system of 225 KW is provided on the roof top of the academic building. With the installation of this system 40 to 45 % of the total electricity requirement is met. It also has additional advantages like: no escalation in power cost for 25 years, up to 20% rebate in property tax under Green Building Norms, uninterrupted energy use during day time round the year. Apart from this solar water heating system is provided in all boys and girls hostels for hot water requirement. Water harvesting Water recycling or waste water treatment plant of 200 m3 or 2,00,000 liters capacity has been constructed. The principle of the treatment is based on Phytorid technology. The Phytorid Technology treatment is a subsurface flow type in which waste water is applied to cell/system filled with porous media such as crushed bricks, gravel and stones. It consists of three zones Inlet zone composed of crushed bricks and different sizes of stones Treatment zone consist of same media as in inlet zone with plant species Outlet zone. Daily 150 m3 or 1,50,000 liters recycled water is available. This is being used for landscaping of the institute. Institute also proposes to further use this recycled water for flush systems. This would save 30% of fresh water. Rainwater harvesting is being done near Hostel Flank "H". This is being further developed in the current year. Efforts for carbon neutrality By conserving and reusing energy the need for excessive use of fossil fuels can greatly reduce, thus reducing carbon emissions. Installing solar panels helps in reducing carbon emissions. well controlled with these efforts in the institute to achieve carbon neutrality. Plantation Every year students along with the garden staff plant trees. The saplings have been obtained from Vanrai NGO or donated by Tata Motors. Subsequent care is taken by the gardeners. Due to this program over the years the campus has become lush and green. Also, a herbal garden consisting of plants with medicinal values is cultivated in the college campus. E-waste management E waste generated is first reused in the campus itself. Then discarded waste is disposed off by board of officers to authorized vendors. Environmental Initiative The Institute has adopted following practice

• Recycling of all old papers / used papers, answer scripts to generate file folders and other utility items

• Setting up of Effluent treatment plant to generate water for Horticulture

• Using 50 % of the campus water requirement through rain water harvesting

• Windrow Compost: to convert organic waste generated in the campus to organic manure

Best practices in Alisha Education institutions for social welfare Training for second and third year students. The college conducts training programme for second and third year students every year besides college has signed MOUs with reputed industries. Industrial visits The college engages industrial visits to acquaint the students with practical and basic engineerin knowledge every year. Blood Donation camp The college conducts blood donation camp to boost the social awareness and ethical duty as human being. Project exhibition The college makes exhibition of the best projects Digital India Programme As per the directives of Maharashtra state of technical education the college organized digital India programme and conducted quiz competition, elocution competition and arranged an expert lecture on effective use of digital technology to grow smart working culture. Celebration of Sadbhavna Divas As per the directives of AICTE, the college conducted Sadbhavna Divas gave an oath to all the staff and students of the college to follow and practice the principles secularity, equality and fraternity. Sports and cultural programmes: The college takes sports and cultural programme to provide an exposure and boost the hidden talents of the students. Manshaki personality development programme: Personality development is the need of the hour. So the college takes a programme organised by MANSHAKI, a foundation of personality development every year. Engineering day celebration The college celebrates Engineer‟s Day on 15th September every year and organises several academic activities such as poster presentation, paper presentation etc. Swacha Bharat Abhiyan As per the directives of hon‟ble Prime Minister of India, college conducted the Abhiyan to make awareness of cleanliness among the students in family, in society and nation. Placement Training Programme To make the students job ready, certification programmes are organized by the departments. Students are also provided with aptitude training, Resume writing practice, mock test and mock interviews. The final year students undergo a technical training, conducted by industry personnel. LICET promotes Corporate Citizenship and bulk recruitment also. Aspect : Enrichment of Skill Sets of Student i. Promoting the students for their involvement in co-curricular activities within and outside the campus by assigning additional credit under an able guidance of of UG program iii. Imparting need based training to the students to enhance employability and entrepreneurship. iv. one-semester credit transfer through academic linkages with other reputed colleges to have exposure to different learning environments. v. Conducting guest lectures, workshops and seminars to encourage higher education within and outside the country vi. Provision of language lab equipped with updated software vii. Extension of additional technical facilities such as open source platforms, software engineering codes and practices, plagiarism and grammar checks viii. Reimbursement of registration fees for paper publication. ix Proctor system - each faculty member work as a proctor for a group of twenty students ( five each from First year to final year B. Tech program) for counselling and better performance of students.

CONCLUSION

Different forms of governance and the distinct nature of higher education institutions also require a differentiation in the evaluation models, the development of a performance evaluation system for corporate universities . The main results from the survey indicate that, for assessing their efficiency and performance, the measurement system must take into account the peculiar nature of these institutions. This contribution should inspire further examination of other kinds of higher education institutions. Overall, the special issue mixes contributions of various kinds. The research is showing how different techniques can lead to inconsistent measurement of efficiency. Three contributions focus on the applied measurement of efficiency and performance of higher education institutions, and suggest how results can be used for benchmarking and comparison purposes, based on evidence about differences between institutions‟ efficiency and its determinants. Quality of higher education can also be improved by inducting qualityoriented objectivity in merit promotions of teaching faculty. Specification of weightages for teaching, research publications/ supervision would help in making this transparent and credible;. improvement in teaching, research and consultancy. UGC ,ICSSR and other research funding bodies should encourage interdisciplinary/ multi-disciplinary Seminars/ Conferences/ Research projects. These bodies could allocate at least 50 percent of their research funds for inter-disciplinary activities. UGC could also take initiatives to open Centres/ Schools for promoting multi- disciplinary teaching and research. A critical review of activities of higher educational institutions as well as their budgets needs to be conducted to phase out obsolete activities and create the necessary space for new activities. The shifting from traditional incremental budgeting to performance based one is now necessary to arrest the erosion in quality inspite of the resource crunch.

REFERENCES

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Registrar & Dean, Sai Nath University