2013

Dr. Trilok Kumar Jain Dean, ISBM, Suresh Gyan Vihar University12/6/2013

The Edupreneur’s Ultimate Guide to Academic Excellence and Educational Administration

THE EDUPRENEUR'S ULTIMATE GUIDE TO ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AND EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION

By: Trilok Kumar Jain

Dean, ISBM, Suresh Gyan Vihar University, Jaipur, India

jain.tk@gmail.com

Mobile: 9414430763

Author of ebooks on Management

The views & ideas expressed in this e-book are the personal views of the author and need not represent the institution the author belongs to. The examples and incidents quoted in this e-book are only for academic purpose and should not be used otherwise. The author has limitations in expressing the greatness of the institutions, but the author feels that the amazing experiences of the author should help others also directly or indirectly. This e-book is a humble attempt in this direction. The author is thankful to all those from whom the author has learned a lot, particularly the management of Suresh Gyan Vihar University Jaipur (particularly towards Shri Sunil Sharma, Chairman, Dr.

Sudhanshu, Chief Mentor, Prof. D.N. Rao, President and Shri Narhari Sharma, Registrar) which has enabled the writer to write this e-book for the benefit of future edupreneurs. QTPC and other words used in

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In a short span of time, Suresh Gyan Vihar University has emerged as the Best E-Campus, the Best Green Campus, the Placement oriented University …. And has many aworld records created by its students… Know the secrets of amazing educational administration and academic excellence

this e-book are all exclusive intellectual property of Suresh Gyan Vihar University Jaipur and the author is grateful for being able to use these words.

For whom? If you wish to set up great educational institutions ..... If you wish to learn the secrets of creating great institutions… If you wish to help others in creating institutions of tomorrow… If you really want to solve the problems of our planet through the best solution – the best

Education… Are you an entrepreneur in education sector? - This will help you Who have become entrepreneurs in education sector Those who aspire to be entrepreneurs in education sector Those who aspire to train entrepreneurs / administrators / managers / executives in education

sector Thaw who aspire to support entrepreneurs in education sector or help institutions in their

growth

Introduction:-Suresh Gyan Vihar University has achieved every conceivable distinction in a very short span of time. It has got the best E-Campus, the Best Green Campus, the most placement oriented university, the most quality driven university, many world records created by its students and so many other prestigious awards and accreditations. The amazing progress in a short span of

time is due to the fact that the university has been truly student centric and has designed innovative curriculum for the benefit of students. It has introduced world class technologies, state of the art laboratories, world class infrastructure just for the benefit of the students. Even a student of B.Com Ist year uses LCD projects for his presentations from the day one. This is just to show that technology is at the service for the prime motive of developing students. When you enter the campus, you feel a great academic ambience, neat and clean laboratories, lush

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green sports grounds, next generation infrastructure and smiling and energetic faces, you realize that it is truly a great place to learn and grow. This article is a humble attempt to share with you the secrets of academic excellence, so that we may have many many great institutions all around the challenges of modern civilizations are met through quality education (believe it that education has solution for most problems).

How will this benefit you?

Based on his experiences of working in growing institutions (the amazing progress of Gyan Vihar University, the amazing progress of IIM Ahmedabad, the amazing progress of A.V. Jain Girls College Sriganganagar and other institutions), the writer has identified some principles which can help every institution in its growth and development. The writer is indebted to the management of these institutions, where the writer got opportunity to learn and grow. This article is based more on the experiences of Suresh Gyan Vihar University, which has created a distinct image for itself in a short span of time.

Why have I written this?

I have invested over 2 decades in education - with over one decade in educational administration. This has given me a great opportunity to learn and practice educational management. I wish to share my experiences and learning’s with you. I have worked in different institutions - with different management, government as well as private, academic as well as non-academic. For the last two years, I have been working with Suresh Gyan Vihar University Jaipur. This has given me a great opportunity to learn and share.

About Tkjain’s 10 Principle Series

As an author of management, I have identified 10 essential principles in each functional aspect and have written e-books on those fundamental 10 principles – which are simple, easy to remember, easy to understand and can reflect the most important aspects. These e-books are freely available on internet. Some of these are as under: -

Entrepreneurs’ guide to Managing Human Resource

Entrepreneurs’ Guide to managing Marketing for Tomorrow

Entrepreneurs’ Guide to Managing Finance

Entrepreneurs’ Guide to Managing Business Negotiations

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Digital Marketing and Webpreneurship

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Tkjain's 10 Principles for Educational Administration

1. Respected the Noble Profession & Reiterate its Power2. Recruit the Best3. Invest in Faculty Development: Mentoring, Coaching and Industry

Linkage4. Practical Education5. Invest in 3I6. Establish Quality Standards7. Invest in Employability Training8. Regular Academic and Co-curricular Activities9. Face to Face10. Be Different, Be Distinct

1. Respected the Noble Profession & Reiterate its Power: Being in education profession is itself a great opportunity. This is the best profession a person can think of. You can change the ideas, thinking and attitude of people and completely transform their future. You can become the role model and rule the subconscious of your students and shape the future civilisation. In my university, the Chairman and senior officers would reiterate the importance of education as a noble profession in all their speeches and their communication. This is a constant process. This builds the loyalty of employees towards education as a profession and they put in their best efforts.

2. Recruit the Best: Retain the Best - take time, getting the best persons is not easy. It is your sincere efforts coupled with chance factor that you are able to get the best manpower. Success of educational institution depends on its faculty. Recruiting the best faculty is really the most difficult challenge. I have seen in my University that there is always a search for the best manpower, even if there is no vacancy. Whenever a good resume hits the HR department, it is given attention. This is the basic philosophy why my University is able to attract and retain the best manpower. Its not about recruitment, its about retention also. Even when there were less admission, my University didn’t retrench the faculty. Retaining the best faculty is even more challenging then recruiting the best. Like business cycles, there are always ups and downs in education sector also.

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There may be times when one branch becomes popular and others find it hard to attract students. That is your testing time. My university tries its best to retain the faculty even in the most difficult times. This builds confidence and trust among the faculty and they deliver their best. In IIM Ahmedabad, the prospective candidate has to give a faculty seminar, which is attended by faculty members. This gives an opportunity to judge the ability of the new faculty to contribute academically to the future of the institution. While recruiting a clarity should be there about what we are looking for. While working in A.V. Jain Girls College Sriganganagar, I used to ask the candidates to speak for 20 minutes about how would they like to contribute to the institution building process of the institution (as it was a new institution at that time). They used to brainstorm, discuss, meditate, plan and come up with innovative ideas. The most zealous presenter would be selected. Prepare a list of all the attributes that you are looking for including vision, exposure to different institution, willingness to contribute to the institution building process. Attracting the best also applies to all related activities.

3. Invest in Faculty Development: Mentoring, Coaching and Industry Linkage - FDP is a regular feature in Gyan Vihar. In fact, the speech by the Chairman and the Chief Mentor is a source of faculty development. They motivate, inspire and develop the faculty members for the future challenges. Specific faculty development programs are regularly organized. Last year, I myself coordinated FDP on Innovations, Entrepreneurship Teaching and Case Writing. Last year, we also conducted FDP in collaboration with NITTTR Chandigarh for FDP. We also conducted FDP in collaboration with CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accounting). We also conducted as special FDP on Accreditation program in collaboration with NBA. We also conducted five in house faculty orientation and development programs. Our University has set up an Academic Staff College just to regularly conduct faculty development programs. This is rare with private universities. These examples are just to illustrate the importance of this sector. We must remember that the time and resources invested in faculty development gives tremendous results in terms of quality of delivery, overall academic improvement and generation of intellectual property in the form of case studies, articles and research papers.

4. Practical Education: Design Curriculum and Courses for the Future - In Gyan Vihar, we impart practical training in everything that we teach. Every course is practical. Engineering, Hotel Management, Pharmacy are practical courses. But we have converted other courses also into practical courses. There are laboratories even in management discipline. We have created Advertising and Marekting Laboratory,

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Finance Laboratory, Accounting and Statistics Laboratory. Even a commerce student has to undertake lot of practical work from the day one. The student of B.Com II Year is able to file income returns, prepare stock reports, reconcile bank statements and prepare accounts using Tally Software. When one student of B.Com Ist year went for summer internship, his company gave him a stipend of Rs. 18000 and asked us to extend his summer training as he was handling their entire documentation work related to a project. Even after summer training, the student continued to help the company for some time on part time basis as a consultancy project. This example clearly indicates that we can re-design courses for the future. Courses like B.Com and BA can also become so relevant that they may enable the students to emerge as the corporate executive of tomorrow. In Gyan Vihar, the BA (Economics) course has curriculum which has two practical trainings, extensive industry interactions and exposure to rural surroundings. All these are designed to give required exposure to the student so that the student can transform himself into a future role that he can visualize for himself.

5. Invest in 3I: Infrastructure, Intellectual property and Innovations - Institution building is not a joke. It requires investment. I have seen that great institution builders invest in 3Is: 1. Infrastructure 2. Intellectual property 3. Innovations. The founders of Gyan Vihar have created amazing infrastructure in a short span of time (parallel of which many Universities have not been able to create even in over five decade). They created infrastructure not just for a year or two but for infinite future. Their ability to visualize the future beyond the present enabled them to design and create world class infrastructure. Similarly great institutions invest in intellectual property. Gyan Vihar has created an exclusive Case Study Development Centre and an exclusive publication department to encourage faculty members to contribute to the intellectual property. There is an active encouragement to the faculty to undertake research, documentation, case study development, patent development, and to create world class academic resources. These things are essential for the growth of the institution. Working in IIM Ahmedabad, I found there an active support and encouragement to write working papers - which eventually enabled the faculty members to get more and more publications. The great institutions also nurture and develop innovations. They reward innovators and create a climate for innovations. In Gyan Vihar, faculty members are encouraged to innovate in terms of curriculum, course design, course delivery, examinations, and industry interactions. This support has enabled the University to emerge as the leading quality driven institution in a short span of time. IIM Ahmedabad has set up an exclusive centre "Ravi J. Mathai Centre for Educational Innovations" to encourage, document, promote and disseminate educational innovations. My university

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has set up an "Academic Staff College" to promote faculty learning, knowledge sharing and a culture of innovations. Regular Faculty Development Programs are also organized on innovations. I myself coordinated one FDP on Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training last year. These initiatives give amazing rewards in the long run. I think the edupreneurs of tomorrow must learn from this.

6. Establish Quality Standards: Quality just doesn’t mean buying expensive technology. Quality means introducing consistency, clarity, order, role-clarity, discipline, focus and system driven work culture. Quality in academics must focus on creating academic norms, which are realistic, practical, student centric, and create predictability across different activities. Quality can come only by sustained and planned efforts to introduce quality. Quality depends on introducing a system, which has been mutually agreed by all and accepted by all as minimum standards. My University has a written quality code - QTPC (Quality Teaching and Procedure Code). QTPC has been very carefully prepared to cover all aspects of academics, educational administration, including examinations. This comprehensive quality code is the backbone of quality delivery. Every faculty member is expected to follow it. It is the ultimate reference book for decision making. Creating quality standards enables you to know your path and enables others to understand your expectations. It also creates an environment of stability, order and discipline. Broadly speaking the QTPC code of Gyan Vihar covers these dimensions: a. time table preparation b. course teaching plan c. faculty mentoring d. practical class & laboratory work conduction e. concurrent evaluation system including semester examination system f. attendance monitoring g. working of the secrecy cell. These guidelines cover almost all aspects of working of an institution. These guidelines enable each faculty member to understand his / her role better and to prepare for the best performance. I think the edupreneurs of tomorrow must try to create quality standards and ensure highest standards in all its processes.

7. Invest in Employability Training: My University invests extensively in employability training. There is soft skill training in every semester. Eminent soft skill trainers and industry veterans are invited to deliver talks to the students. There are provisions of extensive industry interaction. Students go for industrial tours. They interact with industry professionals. They have to undertake summer internships in industries, which is constantly guided and evaluated by faculty members. Many of the students also work on practical projects with the industry.

8. Regular Academic and Co-curricular Activities: There should be an

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academic calendar which spells out the academic and co-curricular activities to be undertaken. These activities should be well planned so that they are well organized. It is better to have involvement of the students in these activities, because these activities are for the benefit and development of the students. In my university, we have 6 regular activities (in addition to routine activities that are organized in every institution), which are as under: 1. C3W - Convention on climate change and water 2. AAYAM - Technical Festival 3. Bellicose - Sports event 4. X-Amino - Cultural events 5. Exuberance - Management Festival 6. Verve – the Fresher Party. A few of these are pure academic activities, while others are co-curricular activities. All these activities are planned, organized, designed, managed and implemented by students. This (managing the event) gives them tremendous learning. They are able to develop their managerial skills. We have 14 students' community club forums, which are fully involved in organizing these activities. In addition, the community clubs also organize regular activities every month related to some or other theme. These activities help in the overall development of the students and make them responsible citizens.

9. Face to Face - One Point Solutions for all Grievances - Even if you have the best systems in place, still you will encounter some problems. The best systems dont guarantee that there will be no problems. They can only guarantee that the solutions will be faster, better and appropriate. Students, parents and other stakeholders may encounter some or other problem. There should be one point, where all such problems are solved. This point should have required knowledge, attitude, and training for this purpose along with required authority. In my university, we have "Single Window" system - where students can approach with any problem and they will get the solution as quickly as possible.

10. Be Different, Be Distinct - it is better to be specialized for some specific sectors. This specialization gives added advantages and also makes a special identify for your self. Take IRMA for example - it is for rural management. Every institution should therefore focus on some sectors. Our university for example focuses on Green Economy, Sustainable Development, Green Technology and Green Energy. Our University has set up exclusive research centers in these sectors. This is just to illustrate the point that in order to grow as a great institution, we must invest in some exclusive sector and constantly develop for that particular sector so that we are able to create a distinct identity for ourselves.

Pl. do read my other articles also - which are freely available on the net: -

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21 Principles of Life Management

10 Point Orientation Programme for the Future Entrepreneurs

Beginners Guide to Career Enrichment

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