Quality Enhancement and Self Diagnostic Survey of Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

India has formally acknowledged the importance of higher education and science and technology for national development and dedicated itself to the development of scientific and technical (S&T) manpower.Over the past fifty years the country has provided full policy support and made public funds to create one of the world's largest systems of higher education. However, the Indian institutions/universities have mostly not been able to maintain high standards of education or with respect to developments in knowledge and technology. They are forced by the sudden increment in enrollments, the limited financial support from the government, and most importantly, by an overall  tructure built on a great number of controls and the supply demand thinking of the past. Graduates from many middle and lower level institutions cannot find suitable employment due to limited job opportunities in the areas for which they are trained and because of a growing unsuitably between their knowledge and current practice in the fields for which they are trained. The higher scientific and technical education system needs urgent reforms and fast changes. The system needs to be student-centric and not system-centric as at present. To understand critical issues in scientific and technical (S&T)manpower development, and to identify strategies to reform the system - both at the systemic level and the institutional level. Expertise is limited and hence to be managed effectively. Only 7% go for higher education and getting guidance is a herculian task particularly in area of research in line and pace with industry developments. Conventionally there exists definite teaching methodologies or strategies available as on date but there is no specific learning strategy available as it is subjective when thefunctionality of an institution today is two folded.1. Enabling education to heterogeneous group withvarying understanding and grouping levels.2. Providing placement to heterogeneous group withvarying skills both educational and life skills.This functionality is further complicated when there is no enough expertise available especially in emerging areas and technologies KM builds upon a human-centered approach that views institutions as complex system that move from the unique institutional contexts in which they are developed. In a University environment a student entering the university is the raw product (unskilled professional) and these students arethen transformed into working professionals. In this case, the variables that affect the transformation process of input to output are, Knowledge & Skills that the students learn.In this paper the authors discusses the student objectivesand goals, and how the knowledge source providers (teachers)right from novice to expert help students in achieving thereobjectives. The categorization of student objectives and goalsalong with KM applications is also discussed. Self diagnosticsurvey of Vinayaka Missions University is given with therelevant SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat) Analysis