A FACT FINDING STUDY ON MAJOR ISSUES & CONCERNS OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION IN ANDHRA PRADESH

GE-International Journal of Management Research

© Associated Asia Research Foundation (AARF)

Website: www.aarf.asia Email : [email protected] , [email protected]

A FACT FINDING STUDY ON

MAJOR ISSUES & CONCERNS OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION IN

ANDHRA PRADESH

1. Mr. Pulla Rao Kota

Research Scholar, Dept. of Commerce & Business Administration, Acharya Nagarjuna University. And Assistant professor, NRI Institute of Technology, Medikonduru (Md),

Guntur (dt), Andhra Pradesh, India.

2. Dr. S. Vijaya Raju

Professor & Dean, Faculty of commerce and management. And Principal, College of Arts, Commerce & Law, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Nagarjuna Nager, Guntur (dt),

Andhra Pradesh, India. Pin code: 522 510.

ABSTRACT

The main objective of the present paper is to investigate the major issues & concerns

of management education in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Naturally businesses across

the globe are required to have the manpower with multi-skills, knowledge, abilities and

proper attitude rather than simply educational certificates with good percentage of marks.

Western countries’ management institutions are molding their self & making the changes in

their educational policies, curriculum, teaching pedagogy and way of conduction of

examinations as per the demand of industries. Now a day’s because of technological

development learning has become more students centric. Branding has made in-roads into

management education. Top B-Schools in the world are continuously changing the contents

& delivery modes. It is equally crucial to Indian B-Schools to make management education

context specific to meet the global competencies.

On the other hand in the divided state of Andhra Pradesh there is a lot of opportunity

to young talented students to grab the opportunities by pursuing management education.

After bifurcation of united state of Andhra Pradesh as Telangala and Andhra Pradesh there

point of view. But the present Management Institutes in AP are not fully successful in

providing quality education and make the students as marketable products. In this scenario

establishing quality higher education in general and quality management education in

particular is the need of the hour. The present study focuses on the reasons for downfall of

Management Institutions in AP and tray to establish some possible suggestions to improve

the quality of management education. On this back ground it is equally important to address

the various issues & concerns of AP management education experiencing with time.

Key words

Concerns.

Introduction

Today, Andhra Pradesh (AP) is one of the fast paced developing states in India. In

recent years business management has become one of the major higher studies in India as

well as in AP. The management education has become essential for every nation and

attracting every corporate business across the world (Dr. Ajay Singh, 2015). Today managers

are in great demand in every sector of economy (Shubhendu S. Shukla, 2013). The reason for

this is that a good knowledge about this field would change the economic background of an

individual rather than the development of the country. Many high quality educational

institutions are going to set up in AP in soon to catch the opportunities. But, education system

in AP is not so strong, flexible and adopting advanced technologies to match with local,

national and global needs. And there is a mismatch between Human Resource demand and it

supply particularly regarding business world. Though the number of committees on

management education has suggested improvements, still there have been no significant

changes in management education except in the top ranking B-schools (Dr.B.V.R. Naidu and

O.V.A.M Sridevi, 2015). For the number sake there are 407 management education offered

colleges with 40,360 intakes (Business Standard, 2015) are available in AP for the year 2015.

But, this number of institutions is not professionally organizing the MBA course. Business

education system is particularly failed to create and train future leaders with all skill sets to be

able to adopt them to the fast changing corporate scenario and start contributing towards the

society and county as a whole. Though the Number of research papers suggested

improvements to management education in AP, still there have been no significant changes in

management education except in the top ranking B-Schools. Now the time has come to

examine the major issues that need to be addressed about management education in AP. The

1. More MBA seats – Less students

2. Students show interest to join – Doesn‟t carry the same interest

3. Highest No. of colleges – Low quality education

4. Highest pass percentage with good marks – Inadequate basic knowledge

5. Many projects done by students – Which are fake

6. More jobs – Still unemployed

7. Ever changing technology and Business world – Never changing pedagogy

8. Huge availability of faculty – No proper qualities and qualification and highest

mobility

9. Experienced faculty – Less research culture

10.Free education – Utmost misuse

11.So many controlling authorities – No proper control

1.) More MBA seats – Less students:

In India thousands of Business Schools have mushroomed in the last decade and

Lakhs of Graduates and Professionals are undergoing Business Education to be better

equipped for the growing economy (Preshni Srivastava and Kakul Kapur, 2015). As per

AICTE annual reports in the year 2006 there are 215 Management colleges with 13,820

intakes in AP. This number is increased to 96,895 intakes with 943 colleges in the year 2012

i.e. 7 times increased when compared in 2006. Some of the notable reasons for increase in

seats are: Fees reimbursement scheme of AP government; Liberal AICTE norms in granting

permission to new colleges; Higher education policy of AP government and at the same time

willingness of students to join in MBA by expecting bright future.

This trend slightly has changed from the year 2013 due to lack of quality education and

lack of proper job opportunities after completion of course. On the other side Under -

Graduate students are not showing interest to choose MBA course in AP because of lack of

quality education, availability of plenty of other courses and some of them showing interest

towards jobs especially government sector. These issues lead to increase of vacant seats.

Approximately on an average from past few years 30 percent seats are vacant where as the

state of management quota seats fill up is bit worst (Pullarao Kota and S. Vijaya raju, 2016).

For this reason, some of the private college managements doing unethical practices to fill the

seats like:

Lure students by offerings like free transportation facility, free hostel facility, no

admission fee, and free laptops etc.

Fake advertisements about infrastructure facilities (Library, sports & games,

transportation, laboratories), placements, faculty and results, and

Taking the advantage of ignorance of students and their parents about counseling

procedure

2.) Students show interest to join – Doesn’t carry the same interest:

Postgraduate education in management stream in AP is currently having the benefit of

a higher demand than ever before, for several reasons. A large number of graduates are

coming out of colleges and institutes every year, making every job opportunity highly

competitive and hard to get. With job openings not being expanded in parallel proportion, the

greater part of these graduates turn towards postgraduate education. Many multinational

companies, during campus placement and recruitment, have shown a first choice for

candidates with postgraduate management degrees. Several companies have raised the

entry-level ability itself to post-graduation with specialization in management. This is being done to

ensure availability of applicants with better skills and knowledge and also to filter out the

large number of applications they receive for every job that they advertise for. Many students

feel that a postgraduate qualification, particularly in management, will provide them with

special skills like good communication abilities, ability to work in teams, leadership quality

and exposure to current trends in business and commerce, thus enhancing their employability.

The MBA degree open up world of opportunities when pursue it in a proper manner

and can be a very beneficial qualification to take as it enhances both skills and knowledge.

Many business positions require an MBA for advancement. Especially in banking, consulting

firms, FMCG industries and service sector etc. So, many students are showing much interest

at the time of joining the course but, many students are not carrying same interest until the

completion of course. Because of this they are not able to obtain the education with particle

knowledge. This can understand by observing the trend of absenteeism, attention in the class

and marks of the students. Students are imagining about MBA course in a great manner and

make expecting at high but were as coming to practicalities management institutions are not

able to meet those expectations and at the same time students also doesn‟t have such

qualities, attitude and capabilities to taste the real flavor of MBA course. At the time of

joining the course students does not think about their capabilities and have the ability to

criteria (any graduate with 50% marks can join in MBA), and craze of MBA course students

are attracting towards the course later they are unable to pursue it and lose the interest.

The main reasons to lose the interest are:

Educational background in local language (Telugu medium); Unfit students are

getting seats; Unable to understand the teachings; Completing UG course with groups like

BA, B.Sc, B.Tech, which are not fully relevant to MBA or completing UG in distance mode;

Lack of practical approach in teaching; Lack of infrastructure facilities in the college;

Outdated curriculum; Fear of not getting the job; Attraction towards enjoyments; Rules and

regulations of college; and Other avocations.

3.) Highest No. of colleges – Low quality education:

In AP for the year 2015, there are 407 MBA offered institutions available for the

quantity sake but those are not fully success in providing quality education. There are many

MBA colleges in AP claiming to be the best, but the academic standards in many business

schools are not up to the mark. And it is so pathetic to say even Universities also not fully

success in AP in providing quality education even though these are loaded with talented and

experienced faculty members. One of the main reasons behind this is lack of financial

strength. Because of cut thought competition colleges are not able to fill all seats. So, they

were reducing fesses to attract students and this leads to low profits. With limited profits

colleges were failing to provide quality education. Colleges are unable to provide quality

education because of lack of infrastructure facilities like good number of volumes in the

library, laboratories, seminar hall, lack of qualified and experienced faculty and poor

management except in the top B-Schools. One more notable point is some of the colleges in

AP offering distance mode in regular course means, without minimum attendance they are

promoting students to further semester this causes low quality in education and student not

able to acquire knowledge at least on basics of MBA course. So MBA course is also treating

as regular PG arts degree rather than a professional course. Of course, in recent past concern

universities taking actions against such colleges to prevent this practice but much more

efforts are needed to control such activities completely and this pave the way to quality

education. Accreditation is one of the major means of assessing the quality. NAAC and NBA

are the major accreditation institutes in India. In AP only few colleges accredited by these

academic standards was that there were for too many faculty members who were not

academically qualified.

Major reasons for low quality education:

Lack of infrastructure facilities in the colleges; Lack of qualified, experienced and

quality teachers; Lack of motivation to teachers; High teachers‟ mobility; College

managements‟ educational and discipline policies; Poor financial strength; Lack of proper

controlling authorities; Unhealthy working conditions; No encouragement for research; Too

much of absenteeism in students; Offering irregular mode of education based on

commitments; Loop holes in accreditation process; Students negligence regarding education;

Loop holes in the education system and process; Outdated teaching methods, techniques and

curriculum; Drawbacks in conduction of examination; and Liberalized paper evaluation.

4.) Highest pass percentage with good marks – Inadequate basic knowledge:

Students feel that if they join MBA they can get degree easily with less effort.

Students funnily sense that PG means „Pass Guarantee‟ rather than Post Graduation.

According to review researchers opined that approximately on an average 90% students who

joined MBA course get passed in the first attempt. It is because of ineffective paper

evaluating system hence, which is not greatness of the students, faculty or college

management. Some of the colleges don‟t send their senior faculty for paper evaluation.

Experienced faculty are not availing the opportunity of paper evaluation. So, some of the

junior faculty are accompanied to evaluate the papers and are using this opportunity to get

compensation. This leads to improper performance evaluation. It is also observed that most of

the students who get passed are attain distinction or first class. This is because of internal

marks evaluation system adopted by affiliated colleges.

On the other hand those persons who are getting pass with good percentage of marks

may not have basic knowledge on fundamental concepts. Researchers come to know this by

number of placements of MBA graduates in MNCs and by interaction with interviewers.

Students are inclination to pursue MBA course to gain easy marks and easy pass not for the

knowledge. To gain marks instantly students follow guides, all in ones‟ and cheep quality

materials for short term study. It is observed that some of the students are playing one day

match (starting studies day before commencement of final examinations). These acts make

them away from practical knowledge and getting placement in good companies. Most of the

immediate benefits like getting placed in managerial position in MNCs‟ which defines their

lack of patience. Such an attitude makes them far away from needed things and finally they

are spending valuable time and money to join in finishing courses like spoken English

classes, communication classes, soft skill classes and computer courses to acquire basic

knowledge.

5.) Many projects done by students – Which are fake:

Universities introduced project works with a great purpose i.e. to facilitate real time

job experience and practical knowledge to students. Project work is a part and parcel of MBA

course offered by any university in AP, whereas some universities like JNTUK (Jawaharlal

Nehru Technological University, Kakinada) introduced mini project to each and every subject

in all semester for twenty marks and a separate mini project for hundred marks and one main

project with Viva Voce which is evaluated by using grading system this indicating the

importance given to project work by the universities. Projects generally meant for application

of theoretical concepts in a real life which learn in the class room. Project work is nothing but

a survey or research about a particular topic to acquire a new knowledge, know the unknown

things, or to solve a particular problem. Main project done by visiting the company daily just

like employees to know in and out the organization. In project work period students have to

collect data regarding to their research topic and analyze it to develop the suggestions to

improve the performance of the organization. But, the situation is not like this. Most of the

Pupils are not showing interest towards project work and they are not having required skills

to do live projects successfully. So they are simply copying the old projects or downloading

someone‟s report and make a little changes and submitting to university. At the same time

getting the permission from companies to do project work is also difficulty today because

companies are not willing and able to give permission to large number of students. Students

are not showing interest to do project in metropolitan cities which are far away from their

staying so all students are applying in and around companies and those companies are

hesitating to give permission to many students at a time. And it is also true that earlier

companies pay stay fund to students but this case reverse today i.e. students are paying

amount to companies for allowing them to do project because companies doesn‟t find any

benefits from the suggestions given by students. Apart from this some students are disturbing

the employees by unethical practices to collect data. so, companies are feeling that giving

foreign countries MBA projects are taking very seriously and pupils publish their research in

journals. Such a practice we can‟t see in AP.

The reasons behind this state are:

Lack of awareness about importance of project work; Lack of skills, abilities and interest;

Number of project works in MBA course is high; Lack of proper guidance; Difficulty in

getting permission for doing project work from the companies; Poor verification about

originality of the project by the faculty and viva examiner; No plagiarism check;

Universities are not so strict about project work.

6.) More jobs – Still unemployed:

After state bifurcation job opportunities doubled in AP. Especially for qualitative

MBA graduates jobs are waiting in service sector at most like finance, marketing, medical

representative, banking, insurance, and consultancy etc. On the other hand there is no single

profession to choose for doing job by MBAs‟. For instance a graduate who completed MBBS

becomes Doctor, a graduate who completed LLB becomes Lawyer, a graduate who

completed B.Tech becomes Engineer but a graduate who completed MBA has confusion

which profession to choose. Because there is no single specific job just like above

professions. An MBA graduate can settle as teacher, manager, executive, bank employee, or

may start his own enterprise. But still so many MBA graduates are roaming on roads

without job. There is a clear mismatch between individuals‟ expectations of employability

and the realities posed by the job market (Shishir Shrotriya, and Bhupendra Singh, 2015).

Management institutions did not develop interactions with industry and this acted as a vicious

circle giving merely non- practical education. Except in case of top ranking B-schools, there

are no mechanisms to forge close relationship between B-schools & industry groups.

Industry‟s changing demand with global changing business environment pay a vital role to

understand the sophisticated methodology and business curriculum worldwide, as the global

challenges create the forced situations on B-schools to cope with the corporate change

worldwide (Dr. Ajay Singh, 2015). The main strength of top class B-schools is their strong

relationship with industry through teaching, research, student placements, problem solving &

case study preparation. We can see structural unemployment in MBA profession in AP.

Structural unemployment is caused by a mismatch between the skills employers want and the

skills workers have. There is a gap between industry‟s expectations and what universities are

in not given to the deserving candidates but given to the person belonging to a particular

community. So this gives rise to unemployment in some communities. And this system is

encouraged by government through reservation system. Management institutions in AP are

able to produce approximately only 20% students as employable.

Some more reasons behind unemployment are listed below:

Outmoded teaching methods; High Teachers‟ turnover; Rapid changes in technology; Lack of

needed skill set; Low pay packages to MBA graduates in the market; Occupational

immobility (refers to the difficulties in learning new skills applicable to a new industry, and

technological change); Voluntary Unemployment (means people choose to remain

unemployed rather than take jobs available); Frictional unemployment (not doing job until

they find a better job what they are expecting).

7.) Ever changing technology and Business world – Never changing pedagogy:

Pedagogy has changed worldwide for MBA course but still there is no sufficient

change in pedagogy in AP. Even today also so many teachers using the same outdated tools

like black board and chalk piece and text materials for teaching. But, these tools are not

sufficient to impart practical knowledge to students. There is a strong need to change

pedagogy to catch the opportunities. Change in study material and teaching methodology

with time is the need of the hour as it is said "Any corporate which does not change with time

is bound to die". Experts opine that old curriculum and teaching methodologies in B-schools

has not able to keep pace with fluid and dynamic environment. Merging the subjects,

transferring the subjects from one semester to another, Needless to say, courses should be

need based and syllabi should be changed periodically. Lack of specializations specific to

industry is one to the problems of MBA program. So there is a need to broaden the

specialization.

These days the technology is rapidly changing, which creates a huge and great impact

on the business world directly and indirectly. Especially in some sectors like banking,

marketing, finance, education, and service sectors technology has shown its mark strongly.

So, to meet these changes organizations are expecting human resources with updated

knowledge, skills and technical abilities. But in AP B-Schools are not fully updated their

teaching as per the requirements of the industry. Many students are ready to use technology

towards projector teaching, online live shows, softcopy materials, and fully digital mode

teaching. But most of the teachers in AP management colleges are not having sufficient

technical knowledge to meet the interests of students and the worst situation is that they are

not trying to develop and update their self towards teaching methods, teaching tools and

teaching style.

8.) Huge availability of faculty – No proper qualities & qualification and

highest mobility:

So many MBA graduates are showing willingness to join as a faculty members; this

is not because of passion, interest or liking, this is because of lack of job opportunity in the

corporate world, structural unemployment and intention of getting some amount until they

get the government job. Especially most of the women are choosing teaching profession to do

some job mechanically for money until they get married and even married women choosing

teaching as a stress less and easy job but not as a profession. Many people sense that teaching

is very cool, stress free, and limited work profession; so they prefer teaching profession for

getting money easily not with an intention to serve the society by their knowledge sharing

and knowledge invention and development. This trend resulted in huge supply of MBA

faculty. Generally ceteris paribus, if supply increases price decreases. The same thing

happened in Management teaching profession in AP. So many graduates in AP are ready to

do teaching job for Rs. 8,000 salary per month; which is really not sufficient to meet the

minimum requirement of their family. By encashing this trend at the time of interviews most

of the college managements are concentrating on cost cutting rather than quality. In AP

approximately maximum salary is offered to a MBA faculty is Rs.25,000 and for the HOD

40,000 except in top B-Schools and universities. This is not so encouraging to the skill full,

talented and qualified faculty hence, by seeing this trend, qualified and quality persons are

hesitated to enter into teaching profession. This is really a great danger to future brightness of

MBA course in AP. It is quite common if the payment is not sufficient, employees cannot

perform their job with dedication, interest, and motivation; so they are not concentrating on

them self‟s to improve at the same time they are not showing interest to impart quality

education and this resulted in quality less education. New faculty members without any

experience joined institutions on low salaries and carried a heavy teaching load. They had

neither time nor the necessary background to take up research or development of teaching

material. They gave lectures mainly drawn from textbook or materials; not based on their

theoretical or conceptual knowledge to the students rather than brainstorming or its

application.

On the other hand Management institutions invested very little for faculty

development even though most of the committees earlier had identified this as a major gap.

Quality human resource development requires constant monitoring of course, curriculum and

delivery methods. Creation of opportunities for teachers training will be a major factor in

implementing successful educational programmes for meeting national and global challenges.

Periodic up gradation of knowledge of teachers in the university and the colleges is essential

for creating a dynamic educational environment. It is an accepted fact that knowledge gets

multiplied in every discipline so quickly that it is becoming increasingly difficult to upgrade

the skills of teachers with the same pace. The two critical issues to be addressed are

mechanisms for ensuring quality of faculty and making the learning student-centered. Owing to

the sanction of large number of B-Schools through AICTE resulted into shortages of

qualified faculty. At present large number of faculty members are without Ph.D. & research

background. In fact, at the University level UGC expects either Ph.D. or NET/SET as an

essential qualification in the selection process at college or University level. But due to

shortages of Ph. D holders in management; only a master‟s degree is enough to become a

faculty member in the B-schools. In selection process industry experience has given a special

weightage but in AP, the industry experience is also not being judged properly in number of

cases. Moreover AICTE has minimum machinery to develop & train the faculty to teach

management Courses with an applied basis. It is also observed that some of the institutions

either engage part-time faculty or appoint them on contractual basis where they have a little

involvement either with the institution or with the students. In order to create good teachers

for B-schools, the faculty development programs must be implemented on a large scale.

Presently the teachers in the B Schools are prepared on a trial & error basis at the cost of

present generation of students who are the real sufferers. Recently, AICTE had informed to

management institutes to depute their faculty members to undergo Faculty Development

Programs at the selected few centers but it is too inadequate and on the other side private

college managements are not showing interest to send their faculty for FDP. That will require

another 3 to 5 years period to get the trained manpower with this system. Again the FDP

programs which are implemented at the institutional level they are also not adequate & rich in

their Quality. As a part of formality & conditions of the AICTE this activity is being

implemented. Therefore, in AP qualified and quality management education teachers are not

abroad especially to the African countries like Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya and Eritrea

this result in less quality education in AP.

At the same time teachers‟ mobility is another major problem faced by AP

management education. MBA teachers are changing their jobs frequently from one college to

another college and some teachers changing teaching profession itself. This causes so much

of academic disturbances and leads to less quality education. There are many causes for

teachers mobility such as stressful working conditions, least pay, no job security, no

opportunity for professional growth, better employment opportunity, bad working conditions,

no loyalty towards college, conflict with management, conflict with colleagues, conflict with

students, conflict with HOD, traveling problem, no recognition for talent & skills, Hesitate

with additional works& duties, lack of increments and hikes, and seats not filled in the

college etc. The impact of high teachers‟ mobility on different stake holders is listed below:

(I) Impact on students (II) Impact on college (III) Impact on teachers

Create academic confusion Hindrances in academic and administrative operations

Obstacles in career growth

Forego interest on subject High cost & time consuming for repetitive recruitment

No job security

No proper academic and career guidance

Create hurdles to

institutional development

No recognition

Adverse impact on quality of education

Adverse impact on academic results

Barrier to achievement and awards

Unreliable relationship pertain between students and teacher

Negative impact on seats fill up

No respect by students

Psychological depression Lower employee morale

and cause a flood of people leaving because they see

their peers doing the same

No good relation with students & management

Chance to learn new things Young, fresh and new talent flows into the institution

Make the remaining employees more stressed out because they have to fill in the gaps until a new employee is hired and trained

Improve self learning Extend flexibility towards change in system

Obtain more financial benefits

Students‟ forego to give respect to teachers

Expenses for compensation do not enhances

--- ---

Improve contacts and relation with number of professors

--- ---

Gain diverse experiences in different work environment

9.) Experienced faculty – Less research culture:

A teacher‟s duty is not only teaching, another most important duty is doing research

and generating knowledge. It is not sufficient to teach lessons from the text books it is needed

to write text books on new development to impart the practical and quality education to

students. Most of the faculty members in AP are not showing interest towards research

because of unawareness, financial constraints, lack of support from college management, lack

of knowledge and interest, and lack of recognition etc. because of this mind-set; teachers are

unable to update their knowledge. Most of the management institutions have been neglecting

research. There has been very little attention provided for preparing course materials specific to

the Indian context. The management institutions do not have a culture that is supportive of

research. This problem existed even in high ranked B-Schools in AP. Imbibing a research culture

requires faculty with interest in research and a good library support system. A research culture

needs a research community and a research agenda. Such a culture will be created only when it

becomes an organizational priority and there is top commitment for building that. If the targets of

B-Schools are predominantly monetary, a research culture will not emerge. In AP the pay scales

to teachers is very low, so faculty getting depressed and hence they are losing their spirit of

teaching and anxiety to do research. According to survey, there is no proper professional

environment, academic discursions, research orientation, and friendly relations in the most of the

staff rooms of MBA departments in AP. Instead of these, politics, controversies, unfair relations,

ego, negligence, Laziness and disrespect were existed. Most of the staff are not showing interest

to participate in State, National and International level seminars, symposiums, conferences,

meetings and workshops actively. Very few faculties are publishing papers in standard Journals

which have ISBN number. Another issue is being a recent development of management discipline

there is a shortage of Ph.D. guides & hence those who would like to pursue for research degree

they register for their Ph.D. degree under the faculty of commerce. Many a times these Research

Main reasons for less research culture:

Lack of awareness; Lack of required skills; High mobility of job; Lack of

work-life-balance; Financial constrains; Lack of interest; Lack of college management support;

Lack of professional atmosphere in the staff room; Lack of proper guidelines and Lack of

proper time management skill etc.

10.) Free education – Utmost misuse:

To facilitate higher education to weaker sections; AP government has established a

scheme called Fee Reimbursement Scheme which was started in the year 2008 during the

tenure of Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy. The government spent Rs.2,000 crore in 2008-09 and

shot up to Rs.5,000 crore in 2012-13. The scheme covers students pursuing professional

courses like engineering, medicine, MBA, MCA, B Ed etc. The scheme has been under

controversies with some institutions misusing it. A Post Matric Scholarship in Andhra

Pradesh is provided by the Welfare Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh to the

eligible candidates who have passed 10th standard (SSC exam )or equivalent to Practice Post

Matric studies like Intermediate, ITI, Polytechnic, Professional courses, Graduate and Post

Graduate course, Ph.D and much more. Two components of post matric scholarship in AP

are: Reimbursement of Tuition Fee (RTF) to the college and Maintenance Fee to the student

(MTF). Andhra Pradesh E-pass (Electronic Payment & Application System of Scholarships)

fee reimbursement scheme is a revolution for Indian education system. Every year AP state

government with the help of Higher education has been issuing the scholarship very

successfully. The Govt. of AP is providing financial assistance to the SC (Scheduled Cast),

ST (scheduled Tribal‟s), BC (Backward Cast), PH (Physically Handicraft) and Economically

Backward Class (EBC) students, to pursue different studies like matriculation, intermediate

degree graduation, and engineering students and also MCA and MBBS, MBA, PG courses

through e-pass application status.

Anything which is for free or too less price; value may not be given by the people for

instance sea water, air, and ration rice etc. Higher education should not be a free product to

all. Even though there are rules and regulations regarding fee reimbursement; because of

loopholes in the system and rules so much of misusing is happening. Especially the rule

regarding parental annual income is totally misleading. Actually the rule is “SC, ST Students

whose annual parental income is more than Rs. Two Lakhs and BC, EBC, Disabled Students

so many students obtaining Income Certificate with wrong amount of income to enjoy the fee

reimbursement.

On the other side many students are not studying the course seriously because they

don‟t know the pain of fee payment. Even parents are also not caring about their children‟s

studies since they are not paying a rupee from their pocket. Government of AP spending

thousands‟ of crores for free education but the misusing is utmost.

11.) So many controlling authorities – No proper control:

At present, management education is grouped along with engineering, technology,

pharmacy and architectural education all of which come under the classification of technical

education which is not appear to be a logical grouping (Prof. J. Ravi, G.Venkata Ramakrishna

Rao and V. Rajendra Prasad, 2015). To control the MBA colleges in terms of maintaining

sufficient faculty members, infrastructure facilities, sufficient number of volumes in the

library, training and placement cell and examinations etc.; there are so many authorities like

UGC (University Grants Commission), AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education),

Universities, Department of Higher Education Government of India and Fact Finding

Committee etc. are being established. And there are so many accreditation bodies like NBA

(National Board of Accreditation), NAAC (National Assessment of Accreditation Council).

But these are not fully succeeded in controlling the colleges as needed. So it leads to quality

less education. Many colleges are not showing truths and facts to the authorities.

Examples to say lack of proper control are:

Colleges are recruiting one day faculty for the purpose of inspection; Unqualified

faculty; Difference between actual payments of salary from salary payments in records;

Infrastructure is only on paper not in truth; Advertisements with wrong information; Fake

placement records; Showing artificial labs; Malpractices in conduction of examinations;

Frauds in paper corrections and internal marks; Lack of corporate governance; Collecting

extra amount from the students in different names; and Accepting dummy projects etc.

On the other hand, one of the emerging issues is to identify the process to be adopted

for implementation of an accreditation system. Accreditation needs to be separated from

recognition. The accreditation has to be fair, transparent, autonomous as well as ruthless. The

accreditation process should free from the political interference. Accreditation that uses

of management institutes requires a specialized body rather than the all encompassing AICTE

to carry out accreditation. A council exclusively for management education is needed, and the

process of accreditation and recognition needs to be made separate. And one more issue is

lack of a corporate governance system in B-Schools. This issue needs careful consideration.

Though the primary responsibility for upgrading and maintaining the quality of education

must rest with the concerned institution, in the absence of a proper corporate governance

system, this has not been so. There is a need to induct independent mechanism to implement

independent audit committees for managing the B-Schools. Nothing has been done so far in

this direction. The B-Schools should become process driven. Corporate governance has to be

made an element of accreditation. Faculty development as well as faculty involvement in the

administration needs to be a part of the corporate governance agenda. Transparency has to be

the root of corporate governance. Information on faculty qualifications, the size and contents

of the libraries, availability of computer facilities, adequate provisions for scholarships, reach

out programs to take management education to deprived sections of the population, a rating

for all institutions that guides students and recruiters in making sensible choices, have to

become a part of the corporate governance agenda in B-Schools. The issue is how to make

B-Schools implement such an agenda. This may require a strong monitoring system and statutory

reporting. Recently the (NKC) National Knowledge Commission has recommended rating as an

additional measure to inform the students, the parents & the public of the Quality of Management

education entity (MEE) because of mushrooming growth of schools in India. Many of which do

not meet even the minimum requirements for the acceptable Quality. By requiring disclosure of

information on rating a great service will be performed to all stake holders including students &

recruiters.

Suggestions to improve the management education in AP:

a) At the time of granting permission to establish new colleges or increase seats in the

existing colleges; AICTE and universities should concentrate on each and every thing

whether those colleges fulfilling all requirements or not. Instead of having lump sum

of colleges if we have average no of institutions providing good quality of

management education then it would be beneficial for all students, companies and

country also. Government of AP should make some policies in this regard.

b) Introduce Bio metric system for both teachers and students attendance to control

c) In order to have a enhanced global exposure, to suit the requirements of industry

under globalization there is a pressing need for change the pedagogy of management

education. And there is a need to broaden the specialization as per the industry

requirements. Teachers should upgrade their skills, knowledge, teaching tools, and

pedagogy to teach classes livelier and as informative and impart knowledge to

students regarding business administration and create interest & hope about bright

future. This is possible through attending FDPs, participating in seminars and

adopting research culture by the teachers. FDPs must be implemented at the regional

levels throughout the AP with the help of top ranking B-schools in India.

d) Teachers should motivate students towards gaining knowledge rather than getting

marks and should inspire them to do live projects more willingly than altering old

projects and submission.

e) College managements should try to retain talented, skill full and qualified teachers for

a long period to improve the standard of education by providing handsome payment

to them.

f) It is needed to provide free education to only eligible students. It is possible through

proper control on fraudulent activities adopted by the students and by making rules

more strengthen.

g) There is a strong need to establish and run the brawny controlling authorities to

control the mistakes and frauds of management institutions. And these controlling

authorities should act fair and strong with a strong vision of providing quality

education.

h) The purpose of the Task Force or Fact Finding Committee (FFC) which is established

by the universities is to create an enabling institutional mechanism that will give a

new thrust to management education. This will ensure that there is an independent

institutional mechanism to specifically deal with management education and also give

a new thrust for management education. Look into the possibility of formation of AP

Council of Management Education quite independent from politics.

i) The admission of students in management schools should be only through recognized

tests organized on an all India basis and used for short listing candidates for group

discussions and interviews.

j) In management education, quality has become a necessity. To make India an

encourage superior quality management education colleges and effort should be made

to breathe life into management education.

k) The management institutions should provide an active program of students & faculty

exchange with advanced B-Schools.

l) Universities, teachers, college managements and industrialist all together should

frame MBA curriculum as fit to requirements of business world and to explore ways

in which the interaction between academia and industrialists could be improved. An

ongoing discussion between university educators and leading managers from all

sectors concerning the contemporary and future needs would provide a necessary first

step to overcome technical specialization imbalance and other educational problems.

Who were well aware of the need for change in management education, in an ongoing

series of symposia that addressed related problems and establishment of a number of

corporate universities is the need of the hour.

m) It is better to divide the management education from AICTE and establish separate

body in National level and in the state level to manage and develop management

education.

n) In order to create good teachers for colleges, the faculty development programs must

be implemented on a large scale.

Conclusion:

Aside from the top B-Schools, merely 20% of graduates from management

institutions are able to get hired by corporate world today. Change in curriculum and teaching

methodology with time is essential. Experts opine that old curriculum and teaching pedagogy

in management institutions has not able to cope up with corporate HR requirements.

Researchers hope that the government and universities will take necessary steps to strengthen

the management education by overcoming the loopholes in management education of AP in

all the dimensions and facilitate an atmosphere to make students as future leaders and

entrepreneurs.

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