Rationale for (a) creating an Institutional Research Division in NCSI
and
(b) enlarging and rechristening NCSI as 'Centre for Scientific Knowledge
Management'
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Much debate has been generated of late related to government funding,
tuition costs and autonomy of institutes of higher learning in our
country. Higher education has been criticized for failing to provide
information that speaks to issues such as quality, productivity and
accountability. Groups external to institutions of higher education are
demanding clear, unambiguous descriptions of the ways colleges and
universities conduct their business. There is great interest in ensuring
that universities are accountable for the effective and efficient
expenditure of scarce public funds. It is in their own interests that
higher education institutions develop their own quantitative and
qualitative information on institutional and faculty productivity and
accountability in order to communicate and respond effectively to public
criticism.( Refer the following news reports that appeared very recently :
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[New Delhi: Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, an IIT alumnus himself,
has kicked up a controversy claiming the faculty of IITs and IIMs are "not
world class." He has also said that IITs and IIMs are excellent because of
the quality of students and not because of the quality of research or
faculty.
"There is hardly any worthwhile research from our IITs. The faculty in the
IIT is not world class. It is the students in IITs who are world class. So
the IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) and IIMs (Indian Institute of
Management are excellent because of the quality of students not because of
quality of research or faculty," Ramesh told reporters on the sidelines of
a function in New Delhi on Monday.
The outspoken minister is an alumnus of IIT Bombay from where he obtained
his B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1975.
Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal seemed to agree with his
Cabinet colleague. "He (Jairam Ramesh) is himself an IITian. He might be
having inside knowledge. Even otherwise...do we have world-class
institutions? As Education Minister, I am striving towards achieving
world-class standards for our institutions. This is a fact that our
institutions don't figure in the top 150 list," he said.]
Or this:
[Even as a debate is raging on the quality of premier higher learning
institutions in the country, noted scientist and chairman of the
Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister C.N.R. Rao on Tuesday
observed that 'IITs and the Indian Institute of Science [IISc.] are not
the best in the world.'
Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had recently kicked up dust by
saying that the quality of research and faculty of IITs and IIMs was not
world-class. However, Professor Rao made it clear that his statement had
nothing to do with Mr. Ramesh's remarks. He declined to comment on the
Minister's remarks.
Addressing the inaugural session of a one-day seminar on "Frontiers of
nanotechnology" organised here by the Karnataka State Higher Education
Council, Professor Rao said: "The saddest thing is that not even a single
research institute in India matches the best in the world, or MIT and
Cambridge" .He attributed it to the fact that other countries had a head start whereas
India began late, and poverty came in the way of research in the earlier
days.
Mediocre research
Referring to the demand for sophisticated equipment for research labs,
Professor Rao said in a lighter vein: "Shortage of equipment will make
brains work better." Referring to the premier IISc., he said, "The IISc.
is characterised by very mediocre research mainly because they have a lot
of facilities." ])
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In the process, universities are able to measure up on how well they are
fulfilling their own declared mission. In addition, information on
productivity at the departmental and individual faculty levels helps the
management of institutions take decisions related to optimal allocation of
resources. Higher education administrators have lacked the appropriate
information to manage resources and ensure accountability: indeed, there
is a compelling need for better management information to provide the
essential direction.
In response to the need for better management information for higher
education administrators, offices of "institutional research" have been
established in certain universities across the world. While the nature and
scope of this kind of activity has tended to elude precise definition, it
can be said that 'institutional research' is a variegated form of
organizational self-study designed to help colleges and universities
gather an expanding range of information about their own internal
operations and the effectiveness with which they are using their own
resources. Even in institutions that had formal institutional research
activity in place for sometime, it had to reinvent itself repeatedly in
response to changes within the internal and external environments that
have impacted its operation and roles.
Historically, institutional research (IR) has served as a neutral, data
collecting body that simply created reports to satisfy external mandates.
The traditional role of institutional research has begun to shift to one
of catalyst for institution-wide change. In support of the new
institutional research role, there has been a call to have the IR be more
than just a reporting function, and instead to use institutional research
in a consultant role for decision making or as a member of a high-level
administrative team, there-by bringing a university wide research
perspective to decision making.
Increasingly, institutional researchers are being asked not only to
provide data on, say, faculty to internal and external audiences but also
to interpret and analyze data for use in decision making at the
institution.(New technologies such as data mining vastly expand the array
of information and knowledge that decision makers can access). In this
way, institutional researchers are being seen less as the keepers of data
on faculty and more as the group that can explain what the data on faculty
mean for policymaking. These may be presented in the form of studies of a
particular issue or the development of performance indicators for the
institution.
When preparing information and analyses for use in policy making, the
institutional researcher considers in advance how the information might be
used. (In many instances, objective information could be used to support
different points of view, and some of these uses may create problems for
the institution). Although institutional researchers cannot avoid all of
these situations when preparing and presenting information, they can
inform administrators of these issues in advance by carefully considering
the potential impacts and understanding the theoretical framework behind
how these data were generated.
In policy making settings, decisions must often be made with the best
available, albeit imperfect information. Such is certainly the case with
regard to institutional policymaking on, say, faculty issues.Institutional researchers
who are asked to participate in policymaking must therefore produce data and analyses
using the most appropriate information that is available to them. In situations where
the information may be used for decision making, it is the role of institutional
researchers (IRs) to alert administrators as to the limitations of the
data and what can and cannot be inferred from them.
A significant part of the work that institutional researchers conduct is
related to the faculty. IRs often work directly with the info systems that
contain data on their faculty, and thus understand how these data were
generated and some of their limitations when reported to various
audiences. The fact that many IRs have strong quantitative and
methodological skills allows them to understand the different implications
of using data on faculty for decision making. For these reasons,
institutional researchers increasingly act as mediators between the
producers and the users of faculty data. Economic concepts, models and
methods can also be applied to higher education problems encountered in
institutional research.
The institutional research field is under constant change enhanced by
technologies. NCSI has been conducting courses in Digital Libraries,
Content Analysis, Information Retrieval, Knowledge Management, Information
Economics (a mix of technology, management, economics..) . Institutional
research involves technologies such as data mining, portal building as
also information analysis and economics. As the next paragraph indicates,
institutional research can also be embedded within the larger fields of
organizational learning and knowledge management. NCSI possesses knowledge
of a majority of these areas and is best positioned to take on the role of
providing institutional research services for the Institute. This is apart
from the fact that we have been an important 'intermediary' group in the
campus involved in the provision of professional information 'services'.
Institutional researchers also act as mediators between the producers and
users of data. We are uniquely positioned to provide the information and
advice needed to assist the Institute administrators and others in
addressing a variety of issues. Other administrative departments and
individuals on campus (the academic section, finance section, the newly
created undergraduate section) possibly deal with one or more subareas of
institutional research: they produce foundational data but it is not
sufficient. An INTEGRATED approach that will lead to campus wide
organizational learning and capacity for better decision making is
missing. For instance, a stand-alone cost figure is seldom interesting or
informative in its own right. Interpretation and contextualization are
usually needed to obtain full value and meaning; appropriate analytical
methods will have to be employed. It is not just a question of budgeting
and accounting for expenditures but connecting those expenditures to the
appropriate inputs and outputs while being attentive to factors that might
confound the analysis. It is institutional researchers who create the
intersection of these various kinds of data, employ the appropriate
analytical routines and interpret and give meaning to the findings. NCSI
can become that intersection point. Our priorities have shifted from
providing information 'access' services to information 'usage' services.
While the IISc library should continue to take care of the access problem,
NCSI can promote information usage through contextualization and
interpretation services and convert 'information' into 'knowledge': we
have moved from 'information management' to 'knowledge management'.
Several other new initiatives have appeared in higher education
institutions in response to a variety of perceived needs. The focus on
products and processes has resulted in the setting up of intellectual
property cells; the increasing need to collaborate with industry has
resulted in the setting up of departments exclusively focused on promoting
such activity to foster innovation. Some of these initiatives even exist
at cross-purposes with inherent contradictions. Higher education is all
about the creation, transformation and transmission of knowledge :it makes
immense sense to bring all the hitherto dispersed and isolated but
inter-related activities under the general rubric of 'knowledge
management' and placed under the umbrella of a unified 'knowledge
management center'. The field of knowledge management can help resolve the
inherent contradictions. Knowledge management (KM) concepts as applied to
the business arena have parallel implications and value in higher
education. One such concept, 'customer relation management' is an approach
increasingly used by businesses to record, track and categorize customer
information in order to expedite customer follow-up and provide better
services. Customer relationship management (CRM) has direct applicability
in the areas of admissions, enrollment management, alumni relations and
fund raising in centers of higher education. It is also a valuable tool
for IRs as they conduct analyses and studies to inform these processes and
functional areas. (CRM recognizes relationships as the key components in
organizational operations. Instead of managing say, enrollment, the focus
might be better placed on managing the relationship between the learner
and the university. Learner relationship management will prompt the
university to proactively examine a whole suite of issues, factors,
information and knowledge related to the various relationships centering
on the needs of learners. Identifying and satisfying the needs of learners
are among the most effective means to handle enrollment, retention,
marketing, student success and a host of accountability related issues).
Another concept, organizational learning which forms part of knowledge
management, provides a framework for the integration of institutional
research within it.
In a knowledge economy, the university knowledge management center has the
potential to act as the facilitator of wide-ranging reforms in the
university academic system. The ultimate goal of KM is sharing of
knowledge throughout the organization and the creation of learning
organizations that are responsive to change and innovation. This will
require reassessment and redesign of internal structures and procedures
related to the flow of information and knowledge throughout the
organization. A university KM center can provide a framework for the
integration of hitherto dispersed components and processes such as
institutional research, archives and other repositories, data mining,
collaboration, portal development, knowledge organization, intellectual
property management and others within the larger context of organizational
learning and creation and maintenance of a research culture facilitated by
knowledge management.
A series of events in the external environment including the emergence of
new educational models is forcing centres of higher education to adapt
themselves through new initiatives. An integrated knowledge-based approach
can facilitate such adaptation. IISc needs to have an institutionalized
process that leverages knowledge to spur innovation, improve instructional
and support service and maximize operational efficiency and effectiveness.
NCSI can play the much needed INTEGRATIVE role in shepherding the change
process. While it is of utmost importance that the library continue to
provide the very valuable information access services and exist as a
distinct entity, it is imperative that other units in IISc set up
exclusively to deal with one or more aspects of managing information and
knowledge merge and integrate into the bigger re-engineered NCSI
preferably rechristened "Centre for Scientific Knowledge Management".
__________________________________________________________________________
Manu Rajan
NCSI,
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Bangalore 560 012
manu.rajan134@gmail.com
