Presentation at India International Centre, New Delhi on 31 August 2013.

1. Commonwealth Educational
Media Centre for Asia
Delivering Quality in Higher
Education in the Knowledge
Economy:
Structure and Parameters
Sanjaya Mishra
Director
Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia, New Delhi

2. My Organization
 Commonwealth of Learning -- established in
1987
 Helps developing nations improve access to
quality education and training
 CEMCA serves as a regional unit of COL for
the Commonwealth Asia

3. My Experiences
 As a teacher and
trainer in Indian
Higher Education
 As a reflective
thinker of the current
trends and
possibilities

4. What is Quality?
 Quality is many things to
many people
 It is contextual
 It does not happen by
chance, it needs design
 Needs common
understanding to achieve
and demonstrate

5. Understanding of Higher Education
 Higher education as the
production of qualified
human resources
 Higher education as training
for a research career
 Higher education as the
efficient management of
teaching provision
 Higher education as a matter
of extending life chances

6. Delors Commission on Higher
Education
 To prepare students for research and
teaching;
 To provide highly specialized training
courses adapted to the needs of
economic and social life;
 To be open to all, so as to cater to the
many aspects of lifelong education in
the widest sense; and
 To promote international cooperation
through internationalization of
research, technology, networking, and
free movement of persons and
scientific ideas

7. Quality in Higher Education
 Dilemma of
educational
administrators to
increase access,
improve quality and
reduce cost
 Technology shows the
possibilities, eg.
MOOC

8. Does Harvard Make You Smatter?
 Many successful people
have studied there
 What is that made these
people successful?
 How of their success is
due to Harvard
education?
 Does the rigour in
selection has something
to do with the quality of
Harvard?

9. Rank of Indian Higher Education
Institutions
Ranking systems First Indian institution in the
rank in 2013
THE Ranking of Universities Beyond 226
Ranking Web of Universities At 294
Academic Ranking of World
Universities
Beyond 300

10. Criteria for Rankings
Ranking Systems Criteria
THE University Ranking Teaching and learning environment (30%); Volume
of research, income and reputation (30%);
Citations and research influence (30%); Industry
income and innovation (2.5%); International
outlook: staff, students and research (7.5%)
QS World University
Ranking
Academic reputation survey (40%); employer
reparation survey (10%); faculty student ratio
(20%); Citations per faculty (20%); Proportion of
international students (5%), proportion of
international faculty (5%)
Ranking of Web of
Universities
(Webometrics)
Impact (50%), Visibility (50% covers Presence,
Openness, and Excellence)

11. Ine-Quality?
 Quality paradigm as applied in education
draws from the business and industry
 Education represents a system of inequality
in terms of resources, funds, and
infrastructure
 Comparing institutions that are not equals is
unfair practice
 Quality assurance as “Social Proof”

12. Learning Quality from Industry
 Continuous
Improvement (Kaizen)
 Deming’s P-D-S-A Cycle
 Systems thinking
(Input-Transformation
processes-Output)
Diagram by Karn G. Bulsuk
(http://www.bulsuk.com)

13. Improving Quality in Higher
Education
 Technology as enabler
 Openness in the systems and practices,
Appropriate policies to promote quality and
integration of technology (use of Open
Educational Resources, and Open Access to
scientific information)
 Capacity building of teachers and students

14. Technology as Enabler of Quality
 In Teaching
 Research
 Administration

15. Creating Enabling Environment for
Research
 Access to e-Journals
 Open Access
repository of research
outputs
 Monitoring and
evaluation of
research processes

16. Increasing Web Presence through
OER
 Create and use OER
 Share educational
materials used by
faculty to
demonstrate quality
 Provide window to
the strengths of the
institution

17. Capacity Building of Faculty and
Learners
 Learning to learn
 ICT Skills
 Research Skills
 Teaching Skills
 Many other emerging areas

18. Value Framework for Higher
Education
Values Parameters
Contribution to
national development
• Increasing access with equity
• Developmental thrust in research areas and academic
programmes
• Community engagements
Fostering global
competencies
amongst students
Development of generic, application and life skills
Inculcating value
system in students
Value integration in courses, administrative practices,
and co-curricular and extra-curricular activities
Promoting the use of
Technology
Enrichment of learning through use of technology
Systems management using technology
Quest for excellence • Continuous improvement
• Benchmark of excellence
• Application of best practices
Based on: Prasad (2005)

19. Thank You