National Education Policy

National Education Policy (NEP)

Impact of National Education Policy (NEP) on B-Schools

The National Education Policy 2020 is the first educational policy of 21st century that was formulated by government of India to promote education amongst its citizens. This Policy augurs an innovative academic structure from school level to college education. The focal point is to provide an academic journey that is contemporary, innovative and is of the interests of young minds at different levels of their education. However in this article salience is to the implication of NEP in Indian Business schools.

• Entry of Top global institutes in India

India with almost 990 universities and 40,000 colleges has the least enrollment ratio compared to other BRICS countries. Nevertheless on the brighter side interested students may not have to go out of the country to get international qualifications. Additionally availability of foreign universities will attract students from outside India to pursue their higher education in India. Even though the competition amongst B-Schools will increase they will have better access to competent students. This also opens opportunity for collaboration with renowned universities/institutions of excellence in pedagogical and other instructional areas. Few challenges that need to be addressed are lack of clarity on parameters or rankings that defines the top 100 global universities. This will also lead to disparity in enrollment and the gap in educational sector between rural and urban India will widen. The real hardship for the Indian policymakers is now to formulate regulatory guidelines for foreign universities to operate in India that promote and cater to the requirement of the country without cumbersome regulations.

• Allowing technical institutions to be multi-disciplinary offering four-year multidisciplinary undergraduate programme

This will impact single disciplinary institutions like management schools. To identify and cater to the job requirement and expected skill set for management graduates will be a challenge. There will not be much relevance in specializations like marketing, operations, IT, HR etc. B-Schools may also find it intricate to offer personalized skill based specialization. To strive in new educational environment B-Schools will have to think beyond core management areas and should focus on cross disciplinary approach

• 5+3+3+4 formula and skill based /multi disciplinary approach

Entry level or the skill set of students in B-schools may be much distinct compared to the current scenario. Students can enter/ exit at the end of each year, and an Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) will be set up which will digitally store the academic credits earned. B-School admission process may have to undergo a complete revamping process. The proposed 4 year degree adds research elements and a value addition to the much needed areas like analytics. This system of 3 or 4 year graduation program will result in uncertainty as currently they are no clarity on the differentiating factor between 3 and 4 year degree with respect to business education.

• Replacing UGC and AICTE with Higher Education Commission of India(HECI)

- The proposed verticals under HECI are - National Higher Education Regulatory Council, - National Accreditation Council, - Higher Education Grants Council, - General Education Council

This approach will avoid duplication of regulatory/accreditation efforts. Provides Equal opportunity for all institutions and it also promotes transparent and technology based system. Existing accreditations, norms, policies will change and B-Schools should adapt to these changes and norms

• Categorization of higher education institutions as research intensive, teaching intensive and autonomous degree granting

Higher education institutions will be defined based on these three categories. B-Schools are a blend of these three and it is impractical to define B-Schools under one of these categories In conclusion Management education in India will witness a major revamp with the new education policy.

By Prof. Asha Mathew Assistant Professor – Quality Systems WeSchool, Bengaluru Campus