In an era of globalisation and digitalisation, employee interests and preferences are evolving quite rapidly and to accommodate these changes, HR needs to keep up with the latest advancements in the market, writes Debajyoti Mohanty of Elets News Network (ENN).
In today’s corporate world, working in a great environment and maintaining positivity in the workplace has become very important. Considering the enormity of the task at hand, trying out the latest vogues in the industry has its merits. Here are five HR vogues that are expected to remain stoic in the year 2020:
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IN HR
The use of automation and AI in HR can change the way companies hire new employees and manage their daily affairs. AI can play a transformative role in improving an employer’s key areas of concern including recruitment, human capital management (HCM), employee engagement, employee benefits, and learning and development (L&D), among others.
Use of AI-based applications in recruitment can make candidate sourcing, screening and matching easier for organizations. Along with improving efficiency, AI is also helping HR professionals overcome human-bias in their decision making.
AI can make HCM better by helping HR build stronger teams, enhance employee experience, and reduce employee turnover. It can also help HR improve performance management and workforce planning. Automation and Artificial Intelligence can also ease the processing and dispensation of employee benefits by personalization, communication and compliance. Furthermore, AI can be a catalyst in transforming the way businesses interact with their employees. This can be achieved by conducting intelligent surveys, introducing real-time feedback platforms, automatically dispensing rewards and recognition, and by personalized messaging and communications.
AI is now powering learning platforms that can replicate the qualities of successful content providers like YouTube and Netflix. It may well be used to improve the learning outcomes of employees in training.
In the present talent scenario, where skills have a lower shelf life than ever before, AI could turn out to be a game-changer.
SUB-CONTRACTING HR FUNCTIONS
Entry-level HR jobs are set to disappear as more and more administrative transactional tasks will be outsourced to external HR agencies and shared service providers.
According to some studies, sub-contracting some or all non-core activities to specialist service providers has shown to have many benefits. This has led many organisations to pursue outsourcing with vigour.
The potential benefits of HR outsourcing include – reduced cost, increased efficiency, increased flexibility and speed of response, access to improved HR IT systems and improved human capital metrics, among others. It also frees HR to operate more strategically.
Despite its numerous benefits, outsourcing HR or some of its functioning to an external service provider is a big decision. Because while it can be cost-effective, outsourcing can introduce new elements of risk including – failure to deliver cost benefits, loss of flexibility, loss of control, impact on the employer/employee relationship, and legal or regulatory requirements, among others. In such a scenario, caution is required before proceeding with a deal.
GIG WORKFORCES
Relying on short-term contractors involves risk but in the majority of cases, gig work forces offer due advantages to firms that can accommodate a continuous influx and outflux of people. It has now become common in the tech industry for contractors to sign on for a project for a certain amount of time and then leave for the next gig. These contractors move from company to company as their specialised skills are often high in demand.
The gig economy needs a much faster recruiting process than what the conventional one is used to. The idea behind gig economy is that people can come and go, so the firms targeting this kind of recruitment have to move from sourcing to selection to on-boarding in a matter of weeks or even days.
Overall, the gig economy has made its grand entrance and is here to stay. And as the famous saying goes, “People dig it if you gig it”.
THE REMOTE WORKING MODEL
The remote working model (flexible ways of working) is a concept many HR professionals consider when they are looking for ways to improve employee engagement and productivity.
Effective use of the remote working model takes care of employees’ needs by providing them alternate scheduling options without adversely affecting the firm’s ability to meet business needs.
Factors to consider when running a policy of ‘flexible working’ include employee accountability, planning and logistics, and performance and technology solutions. In the majority of cases, substitute work schedules have to be monitored diligently by management to ensure continuity of the employer’s relevant policies. Business needs should define how many different flexible working options are provided to employees.
Having a fixed place and time to work is already considered an idea of the past. The remote working model is a great way to reduce costs, drive employee engagement and remain competitive in the market.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Employee engagement was in-vogue in 2019 and will continue to reign in 2020 as well. Also, it is well known that engaged employees will work harder, make a positive impact on other employees, and will be less eager to leave the organisation.
According to the grapevine, key things to keep in mind for a great employee experience are – diversity and inclusion, personal development, health and well being programs, recognition and awards. Employee engagement is important because the Generation Z cohort wants to be fulfilled by making a meaningful impact.
In an exclusive conversation with Reetika Bose of Elets News Network (ENN), Runa Maitra, Founder & Director, People Talent International shares her endeavour and compassion that went into finding the desired talent in the corporate world. With things changing and getting obsolete, Runa is striving hard to understand what the youth wants and how motivated can they be to work.
What worked for Runa Maitra was largely the faith of her management that her team would work towards meeting the crucial deadlines, not worrying about the issues. Having spent most of her career in the ‘New Age Industry’, the journey of Runa Maitra, has been full of excitement and challenges.
“When you take up an assignment where you have no past history or reference to reflect or ability to learn from someone’s experience then it is indeed a different world”, Runa said.
When asked about her initial challenges, Runa said that sourcing the right set of people was the key issue being aware they won’t bring the industry knowledge. It was imperative that potential management of the talent pool by understanding if they had the aptitude to learn and deliver to build business was the need of the hour. We could gauge from the talent we on-boarded that they had the right approach to handle their role and hunger for contribution to business growth.
About 2 decades ago, Runa joined the NBFC industry which had its mark in 30 different locations and also a small footprint in neighboring country with a tiny team in HR department.
Talking about the technological disruptions in the HR space, Runa said,” We saw the transition from DOS to Windows with advent of CCMail implantation to create a seamless communication platform for our employees. We hired largely from premier institutions in India and many talents from Ivy leagues colleges to build an efficient team which created the back-bone to respond to such quick changes in the work environment since during that period pagers and mobile were introduced. In fact, we introduced Smart-card which probably was ahead of time for which we struggled to hire the topmost talented people who could help us to launch such sophisticated products.”
The challenge for Runa was not limited till here. The biggest test was not just hiring the right resource but to train them to handle customer post sales.
With absolute no clue about the talent pool in the country, Runa took up one assignment in a BPO, which was perhaps one of the best call centre of the globe. With the experimental mind, courage and rigor, she ensured that the quality was not compromised and kept the entire team going.
Talking of the advantages, Runa further continued by saying, “Our ability to handle multiple projects at a time without looking at the clock brought the advantage. Most importantly, we kept moving city to city to explore and find the right talent was the driving force.”
These wonderful organisations gave Runa the right push to take up an assignment where she could be part of a M&A team to work in their global offices based on-site with people of different countries. Interestingly, the challenges discussed in regards to bringing onboard the employees as right fit were mostly common.
Runa believes in the process of weaving a talent builder’s mindset into the fabric of the business while managing similar challenges we face in our home country.
THE WIN WIN SITUATION
The corporate-academia partnership is the uppermost requirement prevalent in the past, present and future and it always helped seamlessly to bridge the gap if they collaborated right. The talent partnership model between them is in fact apparent during placement season.
In Runa’s words, this spike is slowly reducing since stakeholders of both segments are recognising the importance of hand holding instead of old game of demand-supply. Earlier, the model revolved around academicians collaborating with business through guest-lectures, workshops and conclaves some of which still continues with different flavor.
Having said that, she further continued, “The trajectory has now moved more towards learning the business fit by developing the faculty who are now open to understand real business through experience not just depending on reading secondary data for same reason.”
It is interesting to see that some institutions may not depute their faculties to catch up with industry knowledge in the offices. However, the interaction between them and industry partners has definitely improved through various innovative processes. The stress of internship besides summer and in some cases winter is stronger with much better quality avoiding printing certification to tick-box as factory. The focus on live project coupled with replacing final semester with industry experience has moved the needle big way.
EMPLOYABILITY – WHEN WILL THE STRUGGLE END?
Employability is a challenge and every now and then thousands of graduates being churned out by companies.
When we caught up with Runa to understand the dilemma of the industry and the high hopes of making things change, she said, “We always follow law of average, which blocks are ability to observe the changes happen around us. Employability had been challenge in the past and continues due to inability to cope with the changes while moving from industry 3.0 to 4.0. The repertoire of action taken by both academy and industry had never been enough – even now.
A CAREFULLY DEVELOPED CURRICULUM – TIME FOR A CHANGE
When asked about her thoughts behind enhancing the curriculum, Runa suggested that the design of course-curriculum management needs to undergo rapid change to respond to future need. “In order to meet the industry demand and empower the skills, the students should go through industry specific topics along with techniques and managerial skills”, she further added.
When interacting with students during seminars, workshop or mentoring program, the top question in Runa’s mind is whether there will be enough job opportunity for them as ‘Freshers’.
For Runa Maitra, this query inadvertently is an outcome of lack of faith in the chain of knowledge creators, knowledge bearers, and knowledge facilitators since students have the access to knowledge through Internet, which they constantly compare with their education system.
MAKING THE GRADUATES CORPORATE READY: THE RIGHT WAY AHEAD
To build the appropriate trajectory for students, the industry experts need to come forward with conviction protecting their self-interest to engage the adequate talent pool. The professional skill is an outcome of such hand holding of talent seekers who apparently are fighting their own battle of managing operation neglecting talent building.
Talking of making graduates corporate ready, Runa shared the right way to shape the professional skills. She said, “The ability of managers who are yet to cross the border of internal HR and operations must wake-up to own the resources waiting to be hired by them from campuses. They need to first partner with human resource team to work on the job descriptions to marry the same with the courses designed for students. In today’s world application of knowledge brings improved professional acumen instead of simple academic knowledge. Now, thrust is given to more exposure through practical experience with help of internship, mentor-mentee program, live projects, online courses, virtual learning etc.
THE CORPORATE-ACADEMIA PARTNERSHIP: THE BIGGER PICTURE
Coming to the bigger picture, it is indeed a matter of concern that whether the corporate academia partnership is helpful in matching the capabilities of what the companies are looking for.
what the companies are looking for. Runa opines that the corporate-academia partnership, to some extent is of help to match the capability of employees. However the distance covered had been minimal. It is indeed a long journey; the good news is that in most cases, the path had been beaten by some who had recognised the need, yet to be followed by rest who might be waiting to review success stories.
HAS THE FUTURE OF HR ARRIVED?
The industry is busy responding to the technology advancement, which it was already battling since computerisation. While it moved from analog to digital crossing a long distance diffusing inefficient infrastructures taking the industry through immense transformation.
“The change is inevitable to elevate deploying technology for better connect with the marketplace understand competition being agile”, said Runa, when asked about the future of HR is heading towards.
The velocity of change happening globally is impacting all sectors both in business and finding the right people to run it. The dearth of talent who are tech-savvy not as coders only, but largely as the users are most important who are the consumers, customers and employees of an organization.
The skills required for the business needs to be available at the right time hence embracing re-skilling of the existing employees, understanding of new skill to hire and train to sustain in business.
The bigger challenge, Runa shares, is the ability to respond to global demand since the challenge of finding the right skilled workforce is not issue of our home country alone. Our employee’s travel across borders to collaborate with their global team to deliver as the nature of jobs is changing. The challenges the industry across the globe are facing shortage of skill and not talent. There are enough people who are ready to join industry however they are either not ready for the job or for the aspirational organization which leads to offer dropouts in large quantity.
Runa further questions the ability to prepare the future workforce to diffuse the skills gap from the demand and supply perspective. She said,” In order to hone the right talent for right fit both industry and academia need collaborate to do continuous diagnostics, keep identifying the industry-relevant skills by interfacing with the universities by redesigning the curriculum ensuring more job-ready future employees.
The driving mantra, she concluded by saying that, in the field of Human Resource, that concerns for both industry and academia is to continue to upskill, reskill and adopt new-skill else perish!
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has mandated a new rule for students appearing for the 10th and 12th examinations to have a minimum 75 per cent attendance this year.
CBSE has also directed schools to calculate attendance of students who have to appear for class 10 and class 12 board exams this year as on January 1, 2020.
Students with less than 75 per cent will not be allowed to appear for the board examinations.
Admit cards will be released only for students who are eligible by all means including that of mandatory attendance, as per the new rule issued by CBSE. The list of candidates with short attendance will reach regional offices and the final decision will be taken on or before January 7.
As per the circular, candidates with a genuine reason behind the shortage of attendance will have to submit the supporting documents by January 7. No exceptions will be considered post the deadline and all the standard operating procedures for calculation of attendance will have to be followed.
The CBSE 2020 question paper will be 33% option based with questions on higher-order thinking skills in comparison to questions based on rote memorisation.
The theory exam will amount to 80 marks and internal assessment will be of 20 marks in total in subjects where there is no practical assessment.
The CBSE board exams 2020 will commence from February 15.
A strong, modern, sustainable and well-functioning infrastructure is the pillar of any country’s socio-economic growth. Currently, India is witnessing a boom in the infrastructure sector, and it is poised for exponential growth for several decades to come. There is no doubt that it will also create several job opportunities.
A career in infrastructure development is highly recommended if you find it interesting and challenging. These days, there are even niche courses such as MBA in infrastructure development management that can enable you to acquire necessary knowledge and skills required for this sector. The following reasons should help you to make an informed decision regarding pursuing a career in infrastructure industry.
Rewarding Career Prospects
Both Indian and global infrastructure sector are on a fast-track growth. It is projected that India will secure the position of the third-largest construction industry on the global map by 2022 and its real estate sector will become USD 1 trillion by 2030. As far as the global estimates are concerned, infrastructure investment needs to reach $94 trillion by 2040 to meet the demands of rapid urban migration and population growth. This means that you can pursue a rewarding career in this sector not only in India but also seek offshore employment opportunities through cross-country projects. You can showcase international experience on your resume and strengthen your market value in the job landscape.
Competitive Compensation
There is a high demand for infrastructure development management professionals, but there is a shortage of supply of qualified and skilled talent. Infrastructure companies are reaching out to existing professionals by offering them handsome salaries and perks to get them on board. As you begin to gain experience and expertise or upgrade your skills, you can negotiate higher compensation packages.
Job Satisfaction
Most people face job dissatisfaction at some point in time in their career. However, the infrastructure sector is a career-driven by a meaningful purpose and sense of achievement. There is an emotional connect in what you do because you are making people’s lives better and contributing to the progress of nation.
Varied Scope of Career Choices
There is no dearth of career options in the infrastructure sector. You can pursue a career in hardcore project management, finance management, commercial marketing, project consultancy, business development, technology, law and regulation or policy making, Moreover, infrastructure sector is broadly subdivided into various categories such as transportation, renewable energy, power generation, water, telecommunications, waste management, smart cities and many more – you can choose the domain that suits your academic background, specialization or liking.
Job Security
In today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world, infrastructure is one of the rare sectors which are least likely to be affected by pink slips or economic downturn. There is a dire need for reliable infrastructure to accommodate the needs of the growing population and connect supply chains to overcome geographical barriers for businesses. Infrastructure is going to be an ongoing activity. Governments make necessary support interventions when there is the slightest possibility of recession. So, you can rest assured about job security.
Professional Growth
Infrastructure sector is a huge sector with projects of varying size, nature and complexity. As long as you do your job with responsibility and continuously stay updated with upcoming trends, there is hardly any chance of stagnation in career. There are always new and exciting challenges to work on. You can easily make vertical or lateral career advancement moves, as your job permits.
Entrepreneurship as a Career
While the governments, public sector and private sector undertakings are doing their best to address the infrastructure gap in the economy, there is lack of innovation and smart ideas. Hence, there is a good opportunity for entrepreneurs and startups to bridge this gap. If you have a business idea/model that can solve any problem in this sector, you can think about taking a plunge in entrepreneurship. These days, several entrepreneurs are making news for providing green infrastructure – a sustainable business approach that maintains the ecological balance of the nature and effective utilization of resources using modern technologies.
Infrastructure development management professionals are touted to become the indispensable workforce of the future. There is no time than now to begin your career in this sector.
The article is authored by By Dr. Pratima Sheorey, Director, Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development (SCMHRD), Pune
The closing date of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2020 registration is approaching fast. Interested candidates are advised to complete their online registration at National Testing Agency (NTA) NEET’s official website https://ntaneet.nic.in or submit an offline registration form – as applicable for residents of J&K and Ladakh, on or before December 31, 2019.
Candidates are advised to both save a copy and take a minimum of four printouts of the confirmation page, which would be generated once the application is completed and fees is paid. The confirmation page would be required at the time of counselling and for any future correspondence. The students are also advised to save their proof of payment in case any dispute should occur.
Furthermore, the students are advised to keep a minimum of four passport size and post-card size photographs that were scanned and uploaded in the online application. Candidates are required to carry two photographs to the examination centre present the same during counselling.
Students from J&K and Ladakh who have opted for offline application would be provided the needed documents along with a receipt after they complete their application form submission. The students must keep it secure for future correspondence. Additionally, all students from J&K and Ladakh who have opted for the 15% All India quota are advised to download and print a copy of the system generated self-declaration form.
NEET 2020 will be conducted by NTA on May 3, 2020, from 2 pm to 5 pm, in the form of an offline pen and paper-based examination. Admission to all the medical and dental courses in the country would be done according to the score obtained by candidates in NEET 2020.
In a recent angel funding, mumbai based edtech startup, Eduisfun, has secured fresh funds worth Rs 200 crore from a clutch of angel investors and high net-worth individuals. The funding will be used to increase its scholarship pool and for technological updates on its app.
Actor Amitabh Bachchan and HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh were among the high net-worth individuals who invested in this company’s first funding.
Other investors include Piyush Pandey, chief creative officer of the Ogilvy Group and Russell Parera, partner, assurance at Price Waterhouse & Co.
Eduisfun is the developer of STEPApp, a gamified educational application for school children which has lessons mapped to the CBSE and ICSE curriculums.
According to Praveen Tyagi, Founder, Eduisfun, STEPApp works on basic smartphones with low data connectivity and has been designed for students from private, central and tribal schools.
“The app eliminates the use of video-based teaching by instructors and instead uses puzzles and games to impart concepts, he said. The cost of the app is also significantly lower than other education platforms, Tyagi added.
“The aim is to provide quality education to students at the lowest price affordable and to ensure a level playing field. A team of 400 IITians have built the content on the app after researching for seven years,” said Tyagi.
According to data from investment tracker Venture Intelligence, the funding is the fifth largest this year in the edtech sector. Among the others was Edtech unicorn Byju’s, which secured the largest round at Rs 1,067 crore, led by Qatar Investment Authority in July. Unacademy raised a Series D round worth Rs 363 crore in June, led by Stead view Capital, while Vedantu raised close to Rs 300 crore in August led by Tiger Global and West Bridge.
In view of the countrywide strike, central trade unions have proposed the Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to postpone the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2020, scheduled for January 8, 2020.
The general countrywide strike to be held on January 8 was announced by 10 central trade unions on September 30, over the government’s alleged failure to respond to demands of workers.
Owing to the proposed strike, there may be a dislocation of normal traffic movement as transport sector employees are also participating in it. The students appearing in the examination on January 8 may face problems in commuting, the CTUs said in a letter to the minister.
When asked about the postponement, they said, “We request you to please intervene in the matter appropriately so that the exam on January 8 is deferred to some other date to ensure that the examinees do not face any problem.
As per the notification released by the NTA, around 9.3 lakh (9,34,608) candidates have applied for the exam, this year.
Date sheet for the Board of Secondary Education, Rajasthan (BSER) senior secondary (Class 12) examinations has been released by the Board on its official website https://rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in.
BSER is going to conduct the Class 12 examinations from March 5 to April 3, 2020. The examinations start with the subject ‘English Compulsory’ on Thursday, March 5, and end with the subject ‘English Literature’ on Friday, March 27.
As per reports, above 20 lakh students appeared in the previous year BSER board examinations, including about 11 lakh students of Class 10 and around nine lakh students of Class 12. Out of which, as many as 2,57,719 students appeared in Science stream board exam for Class 12. Also, as many as 41,651 appeared in the Commerce stream, and above five lakh students appeared in the Arts stream.
The date sheet for RBSE secondary (Class 10) examinations is expected to be released later this week. And the result for both the Board exams will be tentatively released in June.
With its headquarters in Ajmer, the Board of Secondary Education, Rajasthan (BSER) is a state agency of the Rajasthan government for school level education.
The answer key for the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) held in December 2019 has been released by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Candidates who attempted the exam can check the answer key at CBSE CTET’s official website https://ctet.nic.in.
CTET 2019 was conducted on December 8 by CBSE in 110 cities across the country and according to reports, about 28 lakh candidates appeared for the exam.
CTET is conducted twice a year by CBSE, and qualifying it gives one the minimum eligibility certificate required to get a teaching job. After getting the certificate, the person can apply for various teaching vacancies released by schools like/affiliated-to Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), Education Research and Development Organisation (ERDO), etc.
Candidates who have any grievances regarding their CBSE CTET 2019 result can challenge the answer key by visiting the following link – https://cbseonline.ernet.in/ctetomr/. The field requires the candidate’s date of birth and roll number.
Here are some steps that candidates can follow to check their answer key –
The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) for Indian institutions was approved by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and launched by Honourable Minister of HRD on 29th September 2015.Since 2015, it has become one of the most sought after ranking in India, and every institution wants to see being ranked in the top 100 institutions. First NIRF ranking, based on this framework, were released on 4th April 2016.For India Rankings – 2017, the main ranking parameters remained the same. However, changes in few sub-parameters were made. In 2017, every large institution was given a common overall rank as well as a discipline specific rank, as applicable. Since 2017 there has been no change in the ranking methodology and for 2019 ranking as well, same methodology, as adopted in 2017 was used.
The current paper is an attempt to study the scores of top 100 universities and understand the factors which affect the rankings. Details of the ranking methodology are in the Ranking Document and the details of the ranking parameter calculation are available at the NIRF website.
Data collection
Primary data for all the above parameters and sub-parameters were provided by the respective institutions in the prescribed format. For some criteria such as publication, the primary data was captured from third party sources. Peer perception data was calculated through a survey conducted over a large category of employers, professionals from reputed organizations and a large category of academics to ascertain their preference for graduates of different institutions.
Data for the present study was taken from the published data and the data for the individual institution was captured form the image file published for all the participating and ranked institutions.
Data Analysis
Spatial distribution of the top 100 Universities
The spatial distribution of the top 100 ranked public and private universities is shown in Figure-1. Most of the top ranked universities are in southern states (including Maharashtra) and in and around National Capital Region (NCR). There are only public universities, except 9 private universities, spread over the entire northern, western and eastern states, including NE states of India.
Figure-1: Spatial distribution of top 100 Universities in India
The central states of the country viz., Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar does not have any top ranked Universities, either public or private. If 2 private universities of Rajasthan and Orissa,1 public university of Gujarat and1 private university of Jharkhand are excluded, entire heartland of India, does not have any institutions in the top 100. Does it mean that the universities of the central region, whether public or private, do not conform to the standards set by the ranking framework because they do not attract enough students/ faculty. This also means that universities which are strategically located near cities having greater opportunities, southern states and the NCR, attracts both the faculty as well as the students. The authorities and the policy makers need to focus on these regions so that many of the existing universities find place in the top 100, in the coming years.
Student Strength (SS) in the University, including PhD students
Figure-2: Variation of student strength vs Rank
As can be seen from the Figure-2, there is almost 50% decrease in the value for all the universities. A comparison of private and public universities shows almost the same trend (Figure-3) but the drop is steeper in the case of private universities.
Figure-3: Variation of Student strength vs Ranking for Public and Private Universities
Faculty Strength Ratio (FSR) and Qualification
Almost all top 100 universities have maintained the FSR of 1:15, as many of the universities have score of 30 (max) and is true for both private as well as public universities (Figure-4).
Figure-4: Student Faculty ratio variation with rank
The trend continues for the faculty qualification (FQE), budget utilisation (FRU) and University Exam Metric.
The analysis of these parameters shows that except SS, all other factors are almost same for all the universities in the top 100. However, the major factors which affects the ranking are number of PhD students graduating, number of publications, publication quality and patents, discussed below.
Metric for PhD students Graduating
The trend line for metric of PhD student graduating (Figure-5) decreases by 75% from 23 to about 6 and this seems to be one of the factors, affecting the rank.
Figure-5: Variation in the number of PhD students graduated with rank
This may be because, more the number of PhD students, more and quality papers are published. The trend continues for public as well as private universities (Figure-6).
Figure-6: PhD students graduated with the rank for public and private Universities
The maximum score for public universities is 40 whereas the same for private is 25, a reduction of ~38% and the trend line starts at ~14 and reaches ~3, a reduction of 80%. There are 11 private universities out of 35, where the score is 10% of the total or less. This percentage for the public universities is very less (only 4 out of 65). The average number of PhD students graduating from all the universities is 14.4, out of a maximum of 40 and that for public and private universities is 17.7 and 8.25 respectively, a decrease of more than 50% for private universities, from public universities.
Publications
The publication metric (Figure-7) decreases from a maximum of 35 to almost zero in some cases for all the ranked university and the trend line decreases from ~18 to ~1. The trend line starts at relatively higher value for public universities,19.4 vs 14.5 for private, but decreases considerably for the private universities (Figure-8). The average score of public university is 10.2 (decreases by 1 point if IISc is removed from calculation), whereas for private university is 8, a decrease of 22%.
Figure-7: Variation in the number of publications with respect to the rank
Figure-8: Number of publications vis-à-vis rank for public and private university
The average score for top 10 public and private universities is 20.54 vs 12.9, a decrease of 37%. For most of the universities in bottom 10, the publication metric for public university is between 5-10 whereas for private universities, it is below 5.
Quality of Publications
The trend line metric for quality of publication (Figure-9) for all the Universities see a massive drop from 19 to around 2. There is also a significant drop (15 from 19) in the y-intercept of the trend line for private universities when compared with the public universities (Figure-10), although the lowest value, seems to be almost same at around 2.
Figure-9: Variation of Publication Quality with rank
Figure-10: Variation of Publication Quality with rank for public and private universities
The average for all the university is only 10, out of 35, which increases to 11.3 for public and 8.3 for private universities, a decrease of 25%. The average for top 10 public universities is 21.9 vs 14.5 for private (a decrease of 34%) which decreases to 7.0 for bottom 10 public vs 3.9 for private universities (a decrease of 45%).
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
IPR metric measures the patents filed, published, awarded & licensed. The data for this metric(Figure-11)follows the earlier trend.
Figure-11: Variations in the IPR with the rank of the University
The y-intercept for all universities taken together is 2.6 which reaches to almost negative, as there are several of the universities where this value is “zero” (the number is 29!). For public universities, the number is 21 out of 65 and for private this is 8 out of 35. This means that barring few universities, not much innovation is happening in the top 100 universities as 70% of the universities have the IPR metric 1 or less, out of 15. This number is 68% for the public universities and 74% for the private universities. Interestingly, private universities have a better score here as only 22% of the universities score “zero” whereas public universities with score of zero is 32% (Figure-12). The average for all the universities is 1.2 (8% of the total value) which is 1.22 and 1.14 for public and private universities.
Figure-12: Variation of IPR metric vs rank for Public and Private Universities
Footprint of Projects, Professional Practice and Executive Development Programs
This metric measures the amount of research funding received by the university in the last 3 years and the amount generated through consultancies and by the virtue of conducting one-year full time faculty development programme (FDP). The trend (Figure-13)
Figure-13: Rank vs FPPP for all 100 ranked universities
follows the previous graphs that the number and value of sponsored projects and consultancies decreases with the rankings. Comparison of the public and private universities (Figure-14) also shows the same trend. However, the average value tells a different story. The average for public university is 1.41 whereas for the private universities is 1.49.
Figure-14: FPPP distribution for public and private universities
If a comparison is made between the private universities and public universities, except IISc, the private universities are performing slightly better, 1.31 vs 1.49, which is contrasting to the general belief that the research funding is not being provided to the private universities and are not able to generate consultancies. The only contrasting finding is the number of PhD students graduating, which shows that it is less for the private universities. Is there no relationship between number and value of research projects vis-à-vis number of PhD students graduating? It might be due to the fact that the project and consultancy data is for the last 3 years, and on an average a PhD student takes 3-4 years to complete the degree. It would be interesting to see, if the trend changes after few years!
Perception
This metric for the universities was calculated based upon the perceptions of employers and research investors, academic peers, public perception and competitiveness. In India, most of the private universities are looked down, by both employers and research funding agencies. This perception has very well been captured in the perception data (Figure-15).
Figure-15: Variation in perception vs Rank for all, public and private universities
The average perception index for all the universities is 13.24 with a maximum value of 100, for IISc, and lowest as 0, for 3 private universities. Since IISc has a perception of 100 and the next best is 62.72, the average of all the universities decreases to 12.36. The average for all the public universities is 14.96 which decreases to 10.05 for private universities, a decrease of 33%. The maximum value for private universities, except is 35.3 vs 62.72 for public universities, except IISc, a decrease of almost 44%. For the bottom 10 public university, the average is 4.23 vs 4.36 for private universities, a marginal increase. However, the maximum value of perception for the bottom 10 public university is a mere 8.25 vs 15.99 for private universities, an increase of almost 50%, which is surprising for the private universities. However, the lowest for bottom 10 public university is 0.41 vs 0 for the private universities.
Student diversity
Data was also captured for student diversity, which measures the enrolment of students from other states/ countries, number of women students, socially and physically challenged students. Upon analysing it was found that there in not much variation in the data under this category and in almost all the universities, there is quite a diverse mix of students, including women and physically challenged students. Almost all the university have the facilities for physically challenged students (score is around 18-20 out of 20). However, IISc and University of Hyderabad, which are otherwise ranked as 1 and 4 respectively in overall university ranking, have scored poorly. The score for these two universities is 12 and 11 respectively whereas the national average is 18! These two universities need to improve their facilities for physically challenged students. In terms of percentage of women students, almost all the universities have scored between 26-30 out of 30. Surprising is the case of the top ranked IISc, where this score is only 10, which is well below the national average of 26! Is it due to the fact that less women student take-up Engg/ Science as a career choice? This might be another area of study!
Discussion
Upon analysing the different parameters for 2019 top 100 NIRF ranked universities, it can be concluded that the government of India and the government of states in the central and eastern part of India, need to focus on improving the infrastructure. None of the central states such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Orissa, and most of the NE states has any/ or only few top 100 ranked universities, public or private.
Student strength takes a dip with the ranking whereas, the faculty student ratio and faculty qualifications have been maintained at the required level. The university exam metric, which measures the average number of students completing the programme in the stipulated time, is almost flat for all the universities meaning all of them are adhering to the regulations and most of the students are completing the programme, well within time.
Overall the number of PhD students graduating decreases with the rank, but the situation in the private university is very grim. The average score for all the universities, out of maximum 40, is 14.4 whereas it is 17.7 for public universities and 8.2 for private universities, a decrease of more than 50%. For the top 10 public universities, the average score is 30.24 whereas for the private universities this is 14.24, again a decrease of more than 50%. This average goes down to 13.7 for the bottom 10 public universities, almost same as top 10 private universities, and for bottom 10 private universities the score is a mere 3.8 out of 40. This might be due to the fact that students are not preferring the private universities as their choice for enrolling into PhD, may be due to lack of research funding and research facilities. Most of the public universities have provision for research funding through internal sources (seed funding), which ultimately gets converted into external research grants. These grants have the provision of hiring research scholars with stipend, ultimately leading to their PhD degree. Such facility is mostly missing in the private universities, leading to less enrolment and graduation of the PhD students. This has a cascading effect.
The smaller number of PhD scholars and meagre research grant means less research leading to less publications, as is evident from the publication data. All the data of Research and Professional practices are tabulated in Table-1. The publication metric, maximum 35, decreases with rank for both for public as well as private universities. However, the overall publication metric for all the universities is 9.45 which increases to 21.1 for top 10 and reduces to 4.8 for bottom 10 universities. For public universities, this metric is 10.2, 20.5 and 6 respectively, whereas for private universities, this further reduces to 8.07, 12.93 and 4.08. There is a reduction of 40% for top 10 private universities, when compared with top 10 public universities.
Table-1: Consolidate data for Research and Professional Practice metric
Publication (35)
Quality of Publication (35)
Patents (15)
Projects and Consultancies
(15)
Avg
of All
Univs
Avg of
top 10
Avg of
bottom
10
Avg of
All
Univs
Avg of
top 10
Avg of
bottom
10
Avg
of All
Univs
Avg
of top
10
Avg of
bottom
10
Avg
of All
Univs
Avg
of top
10
Avg of
bottom
10
All
Univ
(100)
9.45
21.1
4.8
10.27
21.58
5.72
1.19
4
0.35
1.43
3.7
0.34
Public
Univ in
top 100
(65)
10.2
20.54
6.02
11.29
21.92
7.00
1.22
3.45
0.35
1.41
3.01
0.38
Private
Univs
in top
100
(35)
8.07
12.93
4.08
8.36
14.51
3.93
1.14
1.8
0.35
1.49
2.00
0.77
Quality of publications also shows the same trend. Overall there is a decrease of 26% between public and private universities, whereas this increases to 34% in the case of top 10 and 43% for bottom 10 universities. This was expected as the students do not prefer private institutions as the favourite destination for pursing PhD. IPR and FPPP, the metric for measure of innovations and consultancies are nothing to talk about. The score for all the universities combined, is a pathetic 7%, with a maximum of only 27% of the total. If the score of IISc is removed from the calculation, the average of all the universities reduces to 1.08 from 1.19 and for public universities to 1.05 from 1.22, which is even less than all the private universities combined! For the top 10 public universities, this value reduces to 2.5from 4 (a reduction of almost 37%) and is a mere 17% of the maximum value. The government and the administration need to step in here and see how this can be improved. This might be one of the reasons, why India is lagging in innovation at the global level.
Conclusion
The analysis shows that the enrolment of students increases with improved ranking or may be that that a better ranking brings more and better students to the university. All the universities, be it public or private have faculty as per the student intake and the faculty qualifications matches the requirement of the governing agencies. The student faculty ratio is being maintained under 1:20 for almost all the universities. The students also graduate in the minimum stipulated time. The spatial distribution of these top 100 universities shows that the central India and NE India lack good infrastructure and facilities and good students are not opting for universities of these regions which is ultimately affecting their rankings. Government may need to intervene and start quite a few universities with good facilities which may attract students. There have been some efforts of opening at least one central university in every state, but the results might take some time, as only one central university has figured in the top 100 universities, only two in the band 101-150 and 4 in 151-200 band. This also might be because there are very less industries which calls for less employment and hence students prefer to move to those regions which have industries and opportunities. This might be one of the reasons to why the top 100 universities are concentrated in the southern and western states and in National Capital Region of Delhi. Lack of PhD enrolment, as is evident from less PhD students graduating, from lower ranked universities also has a direct effect on the number and quality of publications. Patents and consultancies are nothing to write home about, as the scores are dismal low for all the top 100 Indian universities. The government need to intervene, and students need to inculcate the eco-system of innovations and entrepreneurship from school/ college level so that this score improves. There needs to be a major mind-set change of the students so as more and more innovations are done at the school/ college level. Perception was another parameter which was studied, and the data proves that the better perception comes from better placements, opportunities and research facilities which the university has. Student diversity was seen in almost all the universities across the country and most of the universities have very good facilities for socially and physically challenged students. However, IISc and University of Hyderabad need to improve their facilities for socially and physically challenged students and IISc also needs to re-think its strategy to attract more women students in their programs.
Will the pattern repeat this year as well, this needs to be seen with the NIRF 2020 results, which shall be published sometime in June 2020. Till then…
(Disclaimer: The writer is Satyaprakash, Professor, Deparement of Civil Engineering, Sharda University Views expressed are a personal opinion.)
