Professionalising Natural Science Education and Multipronged Open Distance Learning

Tobias et al. (1995) postulated in their book on “Rethinking Science as a Career” that Master’s programs could produce graduates who provide the same level of expertise and leadership as professionals do in other fields. They say that they would do so by having the ability to use the products of scholarship in their work and by being familiar with the practical aspects of emerging problem areas. If we consider natural science consisting of physical sciences, biological sciences, mathematics, geosciences, and computer science, degrees in computer science and geosciences served as credentials for practice, whereas physics, chemistry, and biological sciences served as classical graduate education. Robbins-Roth (2006) collected 22 career descriptions for science graduates ranging from public policy to investment banking, and from patent examining to broadcast science journalism. There are several sectors of the society where the principles and knowledge of these science disciplines are used. On the other hand, there are many of the graduates in these disciplines who either are working in areas completely unrelated to their education and training or are unemployable. The need for preparing the science graduates professionally is well recognized (Schuster, 2011; Vanderford, 2010; Narasimharao, Shashidhara Prasad and Nair, 2011; Chuck, 2011).

Role of Universities in Leveraging ICT for Corporate Education

In the recent past, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has impacted human lives in multiple dimensions. No aspect of human endeavour is untouched by ICT and education domain is no exception to this. Universities need to leverage ICT to improve the quality and relevance of higher education, which would positively impact the corporates, apart from other sectors. In this context, this chapter provides an innovative model which the universities could adapt and revolutionize the higher education. The best practices being followed by Infosys Limited, the IT corporate giant, narrated in this chapter could be leveraged by the universities in the interest of the learning community, the corporates and the society at large.

Preparing Engineering Graduates for Corporate Enterprises

The status of engineering education in the country is briefly reviewed. A problem faced by the industry in regard to the quality of the engineering graduates of whom 70 to 80% are considered “unemployable,” is examined. The mismatch between the skillset required by the industry and that provided by the academic institutions is identified as the major reason for the low employability of engineering graduates. Various ongoing efforts at the level of the government and academia to rectify this situation are described. Measures that could be usefully adopted by the corporate sector are identified. Intensive combined action by all the stakeholders involved in the academic process will only enable the country to reverse the trend of declining academic standards in higher technical education. The case of the Power Sector has been discussed at length to illustrate the points made. During the 11th and 12th plan periods, five lakh technical personnel and 1.5 lakh front end support personnel need to be recruited by the Power Sector as per published reports. There is also a huge requirement of back end staff to take up various managerial functions. Use of alternate sources of energy and efficient management of energy being inevitable, a huge pool of human resources would be required in harnessing small hydro, biomass & bio-fuel, solar, and wind resources, provided they have the appropriate specialized knowledge. Moreover, demand side management, power trading, carbon credits, smart grids, etc. will also require manpower with specialized training. Salient features of the human capital challenges in the Indian power sector are discussed, and certain action plans to overcome the challenges are suggested.

Instilling Ideology of Professionalism in University Education

In recent times, the higher education in India has made tremendous progress in terms of increasing the access and thereby making it reachable to larger population of the country. However, post-globalization, internationalization, and marketization the higher education has been increasingly perceived as a professional service. This necessitates reworking on various facets pertaining to the higher education domain such as academics, administration, governance, teaching-learning process, consultancy, and grants earning initiatives. Therefore without any qualm, the paradigm shift is on the agenda of our universities and the process of reflection, reworking, self-critique, action, participation, improvement, collaboration, inclusion are now the buzzword inviting the renewed attention of our academicians and administrators. Easier said than done, in this chapter, the authors discuss some of the initiatives at state university and a newly commenced central university, wherein they could become the part of the reforms in reworking the model of the higher education. The same is put forth in front of the peers and stakeholders as a sort of action research towards inculcating professionalism in our universities.

NGOs and Corporate Education

Knowledge development at the regional level is basic to the strengthening of knowledge economy. Though there are many examples of universities taking up community service learning (CSL), they are alarmingly preoccupied with student outcomes and institutional interests. They focus more on achieving academic aims and bolstering the interests and power base of the academy, rather than fulfilling the goals of knowledge economy. Chandra and Mahato (2011) opine that in recent years, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have emerged as powerful sources for social change within developing countries. Since the vast majority of them exist outside of the government, their programs emanate more from the expressed needs of the people rather than from governments. The participation of local level bodies including NGOs in establishing partnerships with universities is crucial for knowledge economy development. This can help in developing research networks that serve as a basis for regional level business or entrepreneurship that can be in tune with global economy. In the present chapter, the authors take a case study from Jharkhand (one of the states in India) to discuss how NGOs can help in corporate education and the role of Universities to promote their activities.

Moving from Corporate Training to Corporate Education

Corporate education is centred on introducing learning techniques to stimulate employees to think about what their organisation does, where it is heading, potential new opportunities for the organisation, and new and better ways of doing things. While the role of corporate training is to develop the operational competency of individuals, the purpose of corporate education is to promote the development of capability of both an individual and their organisation. Organizations operating in knowledge economies require a workforce that has knowledge about other business functions along with their specilized area. In the last decade corporate training turned into corporate education in Turkey. As an important business function, accounting is one of the most preferential training subject in Turkey. The purpose of the chapter is to identify differences between corporate education and corporate training. Additionally, the study explains growing importance of corporate education in accounting area for Turkish business life.

Corporate-University Partnerships

Corporate-university partnerships have the potential to create a myriad of mutually beneficial and reciprocal outcomes that support a larger public good. Within the various expressions of engagement, this chapter situates the outreach and engagement model historically and politically in the United States (US). A case study of a successful corporate-university partnership in the US is provided and is analyzed using the tenets of community engagement. The discussion of the case features three lessons that have the potential to inform corporate-university partnerships in contexts outside the US. Finally, approaches for implementing university outreach and engagement in the Indian context are proposed.

Power System Operator Certification

The unbundling of the electricity industry has changed the way the energy supply business is handled from a mainly technical to a more commercially dominated one. This new paradigm shift has facilitated creation of new system and/or market operation entities in electrical utilities throughout the world. The increasing number of different companies with diverse interest participating in the electricity supply business leads to a shift from traditional tasks of power system operation among these companies to new additional job duties or even a complete new job as system or market operator. This case study examines the critical change that have taken place in the commercial environment in which power system operators now work both at the system operation level as well as in the generation operation and how that affects their day-to-day operations. This case study analyses the international scenario along with their performance targets that have already been implemented worldwide and would describe their impacts on the job to be performed by the system operator in India. Finally the training needs of system and market operators’ personnel both at the system operation and generation operation where these entities are separated are pointed out, focusing on the new points that have arisen because of the new commercial environment.

Microbiology Education for Biotechnology Industry

Microbial technology finds innumerable applications in different sectors of biotechnology industry. The scope and potential of microbiology education in different sectors is vast and has direct relation to societal benefit. Microbiology is generally taught at the post-graduate levels for students having basic degree in science (life sciences with subjects like Botany, Zoology, Chemistry, etc.). Microbiology being a vast discipline with many areas like Medical-, Veterinary-, Dairy-, Agricultural-, Food-, Environmental-, Industrial-, Marine Microbiology, etc. requires specific training and development of skills for specialization in a particular area. The requirements of each sector are different and specialized training and exposure is needed to develop professionals. Microbiologists have great demand in the industries like pharmaceutical, food, and biotechnology industries preparing enzymes, etc. The microbiologists get job in product development, processing, production, and quality control. Similarly there is demand for microbiologists in food and catering industries in the areas of quality control and in maintaining hygiene.

Corporate Education in Universities in India

Universities in India were started primarily as examination conducting bodies. It took a few years when academic programmes were initiated. The objective of university education especially in colleges was to train administrative personnel for government departments while there were academic departments in universities that concentrated on pure academic research. Gradually the universities became knowledge centres imparting quality education for all those who desired to enhance their knowledge in desired fields or take up employment in industries. In recent years, the requirement of university education was not just knowledge acquisition but employment oriented. Separation of the professional courses like engineering, medicine, law pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and management studies was a step towards job oriented education. The need to introduce job oriented courses in humanities and sciences became imminent as the number of job seekers increased several folds as years passed by.