Leading the varsities of tomorrow

There are many challenges, opportunities and roles, a vice chancellor has to take up, to head an institution

November 18, 2018 05:00 pm | Updated July 06, 2022 12:31 pm IST

word leader on white toy cubes

word leader on white toy cubes

I have spent more than 20 years in the education industry, during which I have worked in positions that have presented opportunities to interact with people at the helm of the university leadership, both in private as well as in government institutions.

Universities, around the world, are going through a transformation. Technological advancements, rising costs, reduced funding, increasing competition, and many other factors make the role of a vice chancellor extremely challenging, yet critical for a university.

Currently, universities select their vice chancellors from the applicants who meet the basic criteria (candidate with a Ph.D. with a minimum of 15 years of experience in teaching and research, having held posts of dean, director or principal of a university or reputed institution, is ideal).

However, universities of the future will need a charismatic leader with excellent administrative, academic, financial and team management skills to be able to navigate the changes that are been seen in the horizon. It is time to think about how our universities ought to get ready to address the challenges of tomorrow, and what roles the vice chancellors would play, while they lead these institutions.

Purpose: Ability to drive results

Universities of the future will be built on the culture of meritocracy and performance. They will need to ensure that they deliver quantifiable and measurable results in terms of academic and administrative performance, as well as deliver student outcomes.

Vice chancellors need to be pioneers, who value possibilities, and ignite energy and imagination in their teams. They must look at new ways and methods to accomplish things, to gain competitive advantage. They will need to use their imagination to derive extraordinary models of how things ought to work, to produce a result which transforms situations.

Financing

Universities are faced with a multi-edged sword: increased costs due to demand for higher quality, increased investment in technology and allied services, pressure to bring down tuition fees and a reduced funding from the government.

Also, the pressure to continuosly improve the quality of infrastructure, increased pay for better qualified faculty, spending on marketing, increased investment in content for fast changing curriculum has made the situation increasingly critical.

Universities will need to find alternate sources of funds to ensure that they are being able to fight the trinity of cost, quality and scale. The ability of a vice chancellor to mobilise funds from multiple sources including, but not limited to, endowments, charities, public allocations, and so on will become important.

Networking

Vice chancellors will need to play the role of the integrator, who values connection and draws teams together. Their ability to network profoundly with the components of the ecosystem is critical to drive the university.

They must be able to communicate the vision of the university with passion and authenticity, pull things together at critical points, avoid arbitrariness and give focus to the process. They shall be responsible for the cohesion in the team and for making efforts comprehensive — pull different positions and perspectives back on track so that the greater good is realised.

Collaboration

The lines between formal and informal, degree and vocational, class-room and online education are getting blurred. With multiple guiding frameworks like NSQF, CBCS, LOCF and government focus on skill education at university level, it is imperative to identify the right collaborators who can add complementary and supplementary value to the university. Vice chancellors would need to collaborate with multiple agencies, frameworks, regulators, employers, academic and research organisations, national and international counterparts and funding agencies to get the desired results.

They will need to be the guardians who value stability and bring order and rigour, a prudent guide to what is pragmatic and workable without resulting in organisational deficits across the board.

Teamwork

Leaders, in the university of the future, must value challenges and generate momentum; moving things forward, exerting mild pressure to get things done while respecting individual personalities. They must exert enthusiasm and foster energy to accomplish goals. They must goad the team into action, generating momentum to ensure benchmarks are met and time is managed so that desired results are achieved.

As the competition becomes fierce and expectations from students, higher, a vice chancellor’s ability to build a performing team to ensure greater productivity through responsibility sharing, using the unique competencies of each member to advance the interest of the entire organisation, shall be of great importance.

Universities will have to deal with a new set of challenges and must rise to new opportunities. It is order and stability that harness what is positive in attempts at innovation, and contribute to creativity being more responsible and realistic. Tagore’s magnificent view that ‘life should not be the infinite elongation of a straight line’, fits so well to define the risks of tomorrow. Universities have big goals and aspirations, and only a non-linear planning and a strategic mindset can help reach them.

The writer is the Senior Vice President of Schoolguru Eduserve Pvt. Ltd.

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