Dr D Mukhopadhyay
It is a matter of great regret that none of 800 Indian Universities is among top ten in the global lists of excellent Universities even after the passage of seventy years after independence. Yes, there has been phenomenal growth in terms of quantity but null growth in terms of quality. As per as statistics is concerned, there were only 20 Universities in India at the time of independence and the same has grown to 800 which is 40 times and seems to be an impressive figure. Indian Universities suffer from different kinds of maladies and the most important and significant among them is directionlessness and that is owing to non practice of strategic planning process in the overall management of higher education system. Universities are the basic machineries for generation and dissemination of knowledge and knowledge is considered to be a strategic resource which plays a predominant role in bringing about socio-economic transformation. In the absence of strategic planning there is lack of unanimity among the people earmarked to be responsible for running the day to day shows of the higher educational institutions and they are essentially Universities by and large.
Different people think and practice differently in inconsistent directions without having knowledge to the fact what actually they work for in absence of strategic plan. The Indian education is by and large uncompetitive barring the Universities operating under the canvas of private sector organizations. Hence quality remains unquestionable. Under the prevailing circumstances of change, nobody remains prepared to face the changes that practically rule the universe. As a consequence, the Universities become underperformer or non performer and they hardly bother about the same since they are hardly accountable to the society. Without strategies, Indian Universities cannot have significant future. Strategic planning develops competitive spirit among the employees, make them goal congruent and orient them to become at par that of global standard. In the absence of strategic planning among the Indian Universities, they do not have well defined visions , missions , goals and objectives. It may not sound much to state that employees of the higher educational institutions are hardly connected with their duties they perform and this results in landing them in the paradise of non-performance. Strategic planning is an effective management technique widely practiced by the corporate world and there is no rationale to think why the same remain alien to the Universities and academic institutions of higher learning.
Strategic planning is a process by which strategic plan is developed. It is written document of well defined intentions of the institutions. It is the responsibility of a well planned University to provide human capital for globally competitive world. Strategic planning mainly projects long range plans with provision for short range plans too and several short run plans are enveloped in the canvas of long range plan. Strategic plan consists of action of today and tomorrow and guideline as to how an organization should act under changed circumstances. The length of a strategic plan may vary between five to ten and even fifteen to twenty five years depending upon the capability and competence of strategic planners . Most of the Universities earn to meet the part of revenue expenses from the fees from the students and residual part from the government and capital expenditure is meet from long term sources mainly from the University Grants Commission and the government and the same is based on year to year activities. Here is hardly anything for long term planning.
Indian Universities mainly remain engaged in classroom teaching , holding examinations, declaring results and awarding degrees. They hardly ponder over the issues of innovation, opening of value adding courses, meaningful and significant academic research. Research output of the Indian Universities is very low. By thumb rules, it may be said that research output of all eight hundred Indian Universities is equal to research output of two American Universities. Strategic planning is based on the foundation of unified vision, mission and values. Strategic planning begin at the top and it cannot be delegated. Universities shall never succeed to be globally ranked performer unless they document what they are meant for, what they are to achieve, what is their target and what is their goal . In managing Universities, this is to see that everybody is involved and associated with the vision , mission, goal and objective of the Universities. Everyone’s voice matters most. Across the board, staff and officers should sing in the same tune and ideas taking together and gaining valuable insights in the planning process, practical knowledge can be gained which would facilitate to make the plan more realistic. Universities are to ensure that passion of the people must run deep for doing the work. It is to bestow everyone a stake in the future of the institutions. One central idea needs to be developed from the people working at different levels. A thorough understanding of the expertise needed to achieve the institutional goal is of paramount importance. Strategic plan is based on the premise of host of questions for which the planners must have right answers. Strategic plan is the most important tool in the toolbox of the management. Universities are to ensure that opportunities are allied with the core values of the institutions and it should facilitate to advance the institutions by the decisions backed by strategic planning.
Universities should be guided by mission, values and vision and they should be in forefront and centre in all that they do. Strategic plans should be kept at the top of the mind and they should be referred to in every action taken by the Universities in the day to day operations. Strategic plan are subject to periodic review and assessment . It finds out the gap between the budgeted goal and actual result and the ultimately deviation if any so that corrective measures are prescribed and adopted in time . Situations change every day. Strategic plan is a guide but it is also a fluid, ever-evolving document. In the strategic plan, out of the hundreds of tasks, the decision makers may outline initially to accomplish over last five year period, many may get changed and evolved just like circumstances change due to economic fluxes and shifting priories but it always keeps track of where a particular University was, and where it is on date. Strategic plan honours the past while looking forward the future. It is able to create a unique and inclusive culture and it is an effective tool for significant success in achieving its mission and objectives. Strategic plan is based on the premise that let everybody know what your goals are since it helps in accomplishing the results in terms of increasing efforts, persistent attempts and better performance.
Universities must set the goals which must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. Goals must cascade down from the levels of the vice-chancellors. He/she should be competent enough to set the long term goal of the University and basket the ideas from the rank and file to accomplish the goal by the process of association and involvement. The vice chancellor should start by setting the goals. Other responsible officers should set their goals to support the achievements of the vice chancellors’ objectives. Then the second rung officers should determine their goals based on the ones the first rung officers set followed by third rung officials and so on. This is imperative that none should set goals that thwart those set by the officers in the higher rungs of the institutions.
Many Indian Universities are directionless and ultimately land in undesirable land that fail to give it success. Strategic planning is pre-thinking about art of doing and strategy is art of doing in order to accomplish the desired objective. The goal must be measurable since we cannot interpret what we cannot measure. However, Universities must not plan on utopian schemes which are non attainable. It is the need of the hour that every Indian University in particular and every Institutions of higher learning in general should prepare strategic plan and at the same time they must be aware of their shortcomings and strengths and the same should be known to everybody who is associated directly or indirectly with the performance of the University. Strategic planning can act as the panacea for bringing about improvement in performance and hence productivity of the inputs that are associated with day to day operation of the University. Private Universities are widely using strategic planning process as an efficient tool to take their institutions to highest rung of the success in the ladder of competition. Strategic planning helps the corporate sector to perform better and there is no reason to understand that it will be ineffective in case of institutions of higher learning including Universities. Strategic planning can undoubtedly improve the quality of higher education and help the Indian Universities to become more competitive .
(The author is Professor of Management, School of Business, Faculty of Management, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra)
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