TRAINING:Southern and Central Asian countries take a look at problems of University Management
Universities need new tools to meet tomorrow's challenges

The last in the series of three Asian workshops on Institutional management in higher education took place in November 1995 in New Delhi. Organized by the IIEP2, the workshop brought together participants from 11 Central and Southern Asian countries.

Universities can be divided into two categories according to the way they cope with financial crises on the one hand, and diversified clientèle on the other. First, the universities in the Central Asian region and China have decided to respond by diversifying their sources of finance and streamlining their decision-making structures. Nevertheless, they are still fighting to survive. The transition to market economy is in their favour. The Rector of the Tajikistan Technological University asserted that he charges the employers of his graduates fees according to demand and supply on the market. The Head of Planning of China's State Education Commission (SEDC) informed the group that university fees are quite common in China and that there are 14 private universities currently recognized by the SEDC and approximately 800 other private higher education institutions functioning which are not formally recognized.

The second category regroups the South Asian universities which belong to 'mixed' economy. These have remained slow in changing the ways in which they operate despite an increasingly critical financial crisis. Government grants to universities in India have been frozen since 1991/92. Other countries are in a similar situation. Private universities have still to gain popularity4 and managerial know-how is seriously lacking .

It was unanimously agreed that the mission of universities has changed over time. Dr. Gnanam, Vice Chancellor of Pondichery University, India, summed up the situation nicely: "In the past, education was for an ‚lite, knowledge was less important than values. Today education is for the masses, and knowledge is more important than values. However, the content and method of instruction have not changed and universities are being managed with yesterday's tools for tomorrow's aspirations. The administrators of universities need training to meet the new challenges." He found the programme of this workshop timely and very necessary, not only for India but for the whole Southern and Central Asian Region.

Through the exchange of national experiences, case studies, simulation exercises and round table discussions, a number of recommendations were made.
Each university today should run as a corporate system with an apex body to guide its functioning, a body which should include industrialists, politicians and technocrats.

The private sector should be encouraged to take over partial responsibility of higher education. The State, however, should play the dominant role especially in regulating the quality and content. Some funds should be earmarked for the poorer sections of society, strategic disciplines, and for those spiritual and cultural studies in which the private sector would have little interest.

Fees should be charged to students who can pay and student loans introduced.

Certain university activities should be privatized, e.g. cafeterias, book-shops, some of the estate maintainance and development.

Utilization of staff time should be more transparent. Staff assessment should be introduced along with career development.

Institutions should keep different types of 'space' inventories (teaching, non-teaching, residential, recreational, etc.) and periodic surveys should be made of space utilization.

Space norms should be developed bearing in mind socio-cultural and geographical contexts.

Finally it was argued that any managerial change should take into account the context and culture. Before a change is implemented, the pros and cons should be discussed at length, and arguments against should be won over. Change should not be made just for the sake of it, but for the long-term benefit of everybody. Unless this is accepted by all, no managerial change will meet with success.



Bikas C. Sanyal and Juliana Nzomo