"CHANGE MANAGEMENT" IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS - SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Education and especially higher education is the primary agent of transformation towards sustainable development and in increasing people’s capacities to transform their visions for society to reality. It is an established fact that higher education (HE) institutions play a key role as a major change instrument of economic development. The role of HE may range from primary objectives such as employability, enhancing the earning capacity/potential, seeking and advancing knowledge and wisdom, research and experimentation to more serious secondary objectives like attaining mental and spiritual growth, engaging quest for the unknown, facilitating better lifestyle and developing scientific outlook. This role will increase as further evolution in technology, globalization, and demographics influence a country. In order to remain globally competitive in the light of such transformation, the constituents of the nation will need to improve productivity and adopt an innovative spirit. Higher education has the capacity, knowledge, and research necessary to help achieve these goals. Advancement of technology, cost of education, global competition and society expectations are the major factors in transformation of HEI’s.

“Sustainability” in HEIs implies a curriculum revision- choice based, multidisciplinary, need based with industrial tie ups, change in teaching pedagogy-ICT enabled teaching, training the educators, learner centric approach, continuous research by teaching faculty, transparency in governance, examination reforms and adequate infrastructure and technology. Change management in HEI’s ensures quality in higher education and enhanced employability of the learner.

The paper focuses on examining the present status of HEI’s and evaluates the need of change management in the education system in HEI’s. It starts with explaining the various processes in HE system to be reengineered or redesigned to meet the needs of the economic units (industry, agriculture/services et.) in a knowledge society that ensures relevance and availability. The change made in the system should provide education that fosters a spirit of enquiry and research creativity and entrepreneurship.

It is felt that the success of Change Management in the HEI’s requires five major factors, namely; commitment for achieving excellence in all fields, Research and development so as to facilitate innovation and leverage the growing opportunities, Academic and financial autonomy for emphasis on interdisciplinary, Industry - Institute Partnership and International collaboration. In a knowledge based society reengineering of HEI’s is perceived to aspire the challenges of obsolescence and change and move towards sustainable development.