This presentation discusses the issue of shortage of talent in the higher education sector and proposes various strategies to overcome the challenges. It discusses faculty talent issues in the indian higher education context.

1. THE WAR FOR TALENT IN HIGHER
EDUCATION
Anup K Singh, PhD

2. 88 90 92 94 96 98
Salary
Security
Supervisor
Training
Feedback
Motivator
Motivator

3. THE CONTEXT OF HIGHER EDUCATION
 The HEI as a knowledge enterprise
 A knowledge enterprise requires high end skills
 An academic requires subject mastery, highly developed facilitation
skills, and sophisticated research expertise
 Sufficient exposure to the industry is highly desirable
 The gestation period for the development of a knowledge worker in
general and of an academic in particular is quite high
 There is a premium for college education. However, the premium of
doctoral education is minimal
 The Government HEIs have quotas for the weaker sections of the
society where there is talent crunch
 The capacity of the higher education sector to pay academics is
quite restricted
 Talent in the higher education sector is migrating from the
developing world to the developed world

4. WHAT CONSTITUTES TALENT IN HIGHER
EDUCATION
 Qualified faculty (Especially in terms of research and
publications)
 Global exposure
 Sufficiency of faculty
 Internationally comparable faculty
 Faculty at senior levels
 Faculty who can develop students as per the needs of the
industry

5. INDIAN FACULTY TALENT SCENARIO
 Higher education is still not regarded as a prestigious and valued
profession
 Quantity is galore, while quality is scarce
 Demand of faculty is galloping in comparison to supply
 Faculty lack global competencies in research and publications fields
 About 40% to 50% shortage in Associate Professor and Professor
categories
 State Government institutions have slowed hiring faculty
 Many positions are vacant in the govt. HEIs owing to the quota
system
 Hardly any faculty management in the government HEIs
 Compensation in central and state governments sets the best trend
for private section HEIs. Private HEIs do not have resources to pay
higher salary or they do not want to pay
 Private HEIs often tend to compete on infrastructure or on non-
faculty drivers

6. NORMS FOR FACULTY STRENGTH
 Faculty student ratio
 1: 12 to 1: 15 at PG
 1: 15 to 1: 20 at UG
 Best practice 1:10
 Junior senior faculty ratio
 1:2:4 to 1:2:6
 Best practice 1:2:3

7. WHY PROFESSORS ARE DIFFICULT TO FIND
 Long gestation time
 Expectations are more, while incentives are less (There
is hardly any significant difference between the
compensation of Associate and full Professor in the UGC
system)
 Central HEIs, on an average, pay them 25%-50% more
to them. In addition, they have more professorial
positions. Therefore, they shift over there

8. IS THERE FACULTY HUNT?
 Most institutions pay lip service to faculty and their
development
 Faculty jobs are available for money
 Contract faculty are preferred by many institutions
 Irregular and contract faculty sometimes pay money
under table to their employers
 Governments are hiring a large number of faculty on
contract
 Faculty are unionised and the issue of accountability is
sidelined

9. THE EXTENT OF FACULTY SHORTAGE
 50% at professor level
 40% at associate professor level
 10% to 20% at assistant professor level
 In terms of number, 3.8 lac is faculty shortage. It may go
up by 1.3 ml in 2030

10. WHY TALENT SHORTAGE
 Exponential growth of higher education institutions
 Competition for talent from the industry is fierce and
difficult to fight
 Strong entry barriers for professionals from the industry
 Lack of competitive salary and learning opportunities
 Slow recruitment in the government HEIs
 Shortage of institutions providing PhD education and
research training
 It takes around a decade to develop a good academician
 Global knowledge and research competencies are hardly
available

11. INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIES
 Strategic positioning of the institution
 Faculty talent management as a part of institutional
strategy
 Search faculty nationally, continuously and aggressively
 Learning, research opportunity, and industry exposure
 Creating a community of learners, achievers and
institution builders
 Performance based compensation and reward system

12. WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE STRATEGIES
 Brand (Reputation) your institution or prove
 Establish yourself as a faculty driven institution
 Grow your own timber
 Break the job (Use doctoral students, post-doctoral students,
research associates, reducing administrative load, etc.)
 Use internal academic pipeline (Masters and doctoral
students, research associates, etc.)
 Increase retirement age
 “Up-or-out” a no-no
 Develop, develop, develop
 Mission-motivation-measurement-monetary reward cycle
 Look for global talent
 Be flexible and creative in identifying an recruiting faculty

13. Determining
Competencies &
Standards
Compensation &
Reward
Management
Recruitment
Performance
Management
Learning and
Development

14. DETERMINING
COMPETENCIES & STANDARDS
 Qualifications (Masters, PhD, Grades)
 International exposure
 Teaching Experience
 Teaching and facilitation competencies
 Publications and patents
 Research projects and consultancies
 Student development

15. COMPENSATION AND REWARD MANAGEMENT
 Basic compensation
 Perks (12% CPF + Medical coverage + Consulting +
Development allowances + National and international
conferences + LTC + Loans)
 Reward for publications
 Reward for patents
 Reward for outstanding services
 Modern gadgets

16. RECRUITMENT
 Print advertisement
 Website advertisement
 Portals
 Advertisement in
professional magazines
 Head hunters
 International
advertisement
 Social media (Linkedin)
 Peer recommendations
 Conferences
 Regular position
 Contract position
 Visiting faculty
 Mentoring faculty

17. LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
 Long term professional development programmes
 Short term professional development programmes
 Facilitation skills development programmes
 Distinguished lecture
 Membership of national and international professional bodies
 Mentoring intervention
 Feedback on teaching and research
 Conferences/seminars/conclave
 Internal seminars
 Learning culture development
 Individual development programme
 Team teaching and research
 Local networking
 Development allowances

18. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
 Peer review as well as superior review
 Assessment of performance in three broad areas –
teaching, service and research
 Quantification of performance
 Performance planning and mid-term review
 Link between performance and reward
 Link between performance and development feedback
 Comparison and ranking of faculty
 Inclusion of teaching rating, impact factor and other
indices in performance management
 Continuous education about performance
 Review and revision of PMS from time to time

19. CULTURE OF LEARNING, EMPOWERMENT AND
ACHIEVEMENT
 Regular seminars, research sharing, collective decision
making and discussion on various teaching and
assessment activities
 Encouraging new initiatives and innovation in teaching
and research
 Engagement of faculty in various curricular, co-
curricular and extra-curricular activities
 Empowering faculty to take academic decisions and
reducing their non-academic workload
 Rewarding and recognising high performers and
excluding poor performers