This presentation discusses the issue of shortage of talent in the higher education sector and proposes various strategies to overcome the challenges. It discusses faculty talent issues in the indian higher education context.
3. THE CONTEXT OF HIGHER EDUCATION
The HEI as a knowledge enterprise
A knowledge enterprise requires high end skills
An academic requires subject mastery, highly developed facilitation
skills, and sophisticated research expertise
Sufficient exposure to the industry is highly desirable
The gestation period for the development of a knowledge worker in
general and of an academic in particular is quite high
There is a premium for college education. However, the premium of
doctoral education is minimal
The Government HEIs have quotas for the weaker sections of the
society where there is talent crunch
The capacity of the higher education sector to pay academics is
quite restricted
Talent in the higher education sector is migrating from the
developing world to the developed world
4. WHAT CONSTITUTES TALENT IN HIGHER
EDUCATION
Qualified faculty (Especially in terms of research and
publications)
Global exposure
Sufficiency of faculty
Internationally comparable faculty
Faculty at senior levels
Faculty who can develop students as per the needs of the
industry
5. INDIAN FACULTY TALENT SCENARIO
Higher education is still not regarded as a prestigious and valued
profession
Quantity is galore, while quality is scarce
Demand of faculty is galloping in comparison to supply
Faculty lack global competencies in research and publications fields
About 40% to 50% shortage in Associate Professor and Professor
categories
State Government institutions have slowed hiring faculty
Many positions are vacant in the govt. HEIs owing to the quota
system
Hardly any faculty management in the government HEIs
Compensation in central and state governments sets the best trend
for private section HEIs. Private HEIs do not have resources to pay
higher salary or they do not want to pay
Private HEIs often tend to compete on infrastructure or on non-
faculty drivers
6. NORMS FOR FACULTY STRENGTH
Faculty student ratio
1: 12 to 1: 15 at PG
1: 15 to 1: 20 at UG
Best practice 1:10
Junior senior faculty ratio
1:2:4 to 1:2:6
Best practice 1:2:3
7. WHY PROFESSORS ARE DIFFICULT TO FIND
Long gestation time
Expectations are more, while incentives are less (There
is hardly any significant difference between the
compensation of Associate and full Professor in the UGC
system)
Central HEIs, on an average, pay them 25%-50% more
to them. In addition, they have more professorial
positions. Therefore, they shift over there
8. IS THERE FACULTY HUNT?
Most institutions pay lip service to faculty and their
development
Faculty jobs are available for money
Contract faculty are preferred by many institutions
Irregular and contract faculty sometimes pay money
under table to their employers
Governments are hiring a large number of faculty on
contract
Faculty are unionised and the issue of accountability is
sidelined
9. THE EXTENT OF FACULTY SHORTAGE
50% at professor level
40% at associate professor level
10% to 20% at assistant professor level
In terms of number, 3.8 lac is faculty shortage. It may go
up by 1.3 ml in 2030
10. WHY TALENT SHORTAGE
Exponential growth of higher education institutions
Competition for talent from the industry is fierce and
difficult to fight
Strong entry barriers for professionals from the industry
Lack of competitive salary and learning opportunities
Slow recruitment in the government HEIs
Shortage of institutions providing PhD education and
research training
It takes around a decade to develop a good academician
Global knowledge and research competencies are hardly
available
11. INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIES
Strategic positioning of the institution
Faculty talent management as a part of institutional
strategy
Search faculty nationally, continuously and aggressively
Learning, research opportunity, and industry exposure
Creating a community of learners, achievers and
institution builders
Performance based compensation and reward system
12. WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE STRATEGIES
Brand (Reputation) your institution or prove
Establish yourself as a faculty driven institution
Grow your own timber
Break the job (Use doctoral students, post-doctoral students,
research associates, reducing administrative load, etc.)
Use internal academic pipeline (Masters and doctoral
students, research associates, etc.)
Increase retirement age
“Up-or-out” a no-no
Develop, develop, develop
Mission-motivation-measurement-monetary reward cycle
Look for global talent
Be flexible and creative in identifying an recruiting faculty
14. DETERMINING
COMPETENCIES & STANDARDS
Qualifications (Masters, PhD, Grades)
International exposure
Teaching Experience
Teaching and facilitation competencies
Publications and patents
Research projects and consultancies
Student development
15. COMPENSATION AND REWARD MANAGEMENT
Basic compensation
Perks (12% CPF + Medical coverage + Consulting +
Development allowances + National and international
conferences + LTC + Loans)
Reward for publications
Reward for patents
Reward for outstanding services
Modern gadgets
16. RECRUITMENT
Print advertisement
Website advertisement
Portals
Advertisement in
professional magazines
Head hunters
International
advertisement
Social media (Linkedin)
Peer recommendations
Conferences
Regular position
Contract position
Visiting faculty
Mentoring faculty
17. LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Long term professional development programmes
Short term professional development programmes
Facilitation skills development programmes
Distinguished lecture
Membership of national and international professional bodies
Mentoring intervention
Feedback on teaching and research
Conferences/seminars/conclave
Internal seminars
Learning culture development
Individual development programme
Team teaching and research
Local networking
Development allowances
18. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Peer review as well as superior review
Assessment of performance in three broad areas –
teaching, service and research
Quantification of performance
Performance planning and mid-term review
Link between performance and reward
Link between performance and development feedback
Comparison and ranking of faculty
Inclusion of teaching rating, impact factor and other
indices in performance management
Continuous education about performance
Review and revision of PMS from time to time
19. CULTURE OF LEARNING, EMPOWERMENT AND
ACHIEVEMENT
Regular seminars, research sharing, collective decision
making and discussion on various teaching and
assessment activities
Encouraging new initiatives and innovation in teaching
and research
Engagement of faculty in various curricular, co-
curricular and extra-curricular activities
Empowering faculty to take academic decisions and
reducing their non-academic workload
Rewarding and recognising high performers and
excluding poor performers