Abstract:

India, that is expected to emerge as an important economic power of the world by 2030, needs to provide the right aura for learning (Times of India). Though the number of colleges/universities is expanding rapidly but quality is often low. Gradually, the stock of educated workers will increase. However, cognitive skill formation, rather than education attainment, is what matters most for both the earnings potential of the individual as well as their contribution to economic growth at the aggregate level. An important indicator of the defects in the education system is the apparently poor employability of many Indian graduates. According to one industry association representing software and service sector firms, only 10 to 15% of business graduates and approximately one quarter of engineering graduates were judged to be employable.(NASSCOM, 2009) The dual challenge now is to lift the participation considerably and simultaneously improving the quality of higher education.
As now it comes to improvement of quality of higher education in India we chose to analyze using the six sigma improvement methodology (DMAIC), as the goal of six sigma is to improve product & process by eliminating defects & wastes. The tool utilized to conduct the study was a well-structured Questionnaire which targeted towards engineering, management and pharmacy institute’s students, faculty and their institute’s jury of opinion. In total 11 institutes were included in the study. The divisions of the Institutes were as- Engineering Institutes - 5, Management Institutes - 3, Pharmacy Institutes - 3.
Through the literature review and the pilot research survey that was carried out it was revealed that higher education has major gaps such as 1) Industry Academia linkage, 2) Role of Technology in Higher education, 3) Library automation, 4) Experiential learning, 5) Faculty development etc.
On critically analyzing, the causes that are leading to these gaps are such as 1) Lack of integration of industry with the three stages of the institute, 2) Infrastructure incompatibilities and lack of funds, 3) Lack of funds, Lack of administrative support, Lack of trained staff, Lack of fund for recurring expenditure respectively.
Analyzing the major causes helped us to bridge the gap of quality in higher education. It finally highlights the various strategies like 1) Threefold Methodology for Industry Academia linkage, 2) PPA (pre post analysis) for library automation.

Keywords:

Cognitive skill formation, economic growth, employability, six sigma, DMAIC, experiential learning, Threefold Methodology, PPA (pre post analysis).