CONTINUING EDUCATION :: A Promise to Deliver

The technical manpower of the country is increasing annually; this increase is today at over 120,000 fresh graduates each year. A good percentage of these graduates join technical jobs immediately. Very few of them manage to upgrade their education subsequently. All this has been happening for over decades now, and hence it has left behind a large number of practising professionals who need to be technically upgraded.

Background

Almost since its inception, IIT Kanpur has been involved in the education of not only undergraduate and postgraduate students, but also of teachers in engineering colleges and professional engineers working in Indian industry. As far back as 1963-64, five intensive two-week courses for members belonging to other institutions, two long-term training programmes for institutes about of acquire computing facilities, and an introductory two-day seminar for government organisations were conducted by the Computer Centre at IIT Kanpur. Since IIT Kanpur was one of the first institutes in India to acquire a computer, it made use of this resource to pioneer the continuing education programme involving teachers, bureaucrats, and industry professionals. Using the experience gained in evolving a continuing education programme for computer education, the academic departments of IIT Kanpur realised the value of this activity, and soon short-term courses and training programmes became a regular feature of the academic calendar of the insitute. The Institute's Annual Report for 1967-68 states: "At IIT Kanpur, we are engaged in a promising experiment in the education of engineers, technologists and scientists... [elements of this experiment include] continuing educational programmes to assist teachers, professors from colleges and technical institutions, and experts from industries to update their knowledge as well as exposing them to new skills and devices."

Continuing education activities for teachers of engineering colleges have been conducted by the Government of India for almost twenty five years now, under the Quality Improvement Programme (QIP) and the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE). However, in spite of the good beginning made by IIT Kanpur, continuing education programmes for professional engineers remained on a low key until recently. In 1987, the five IITs, IISc and University of Roorkee sent a joint proposal to the Ministry for Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, which states: "The Continuing Education Programmes, although gaining in popularity, have operated on a very modest scale and compared to their potential they can at present only be regarded as busy in their infancy in this country." On the basis of this proposal, the Centre for Development of Technical Eduction (CDTE) was established at IIT Kanpur.

Major Oppurtunities at IIT Kanpur

A strong Continuing Education Programme requires four major elements:

• Must be abreast with the latest technology in the relevant field
• Flair for teaching difficult concepts in a simple manner
• Appreciation of the needs of educational institutions and industry
• Marketing skills

Here IIT Kanpur has major advantages: the quality of faculty at IIT Kanpur is outstanding, and IIT Kanpur has always placed a lot of emphasis on good teaching. This institute also has a reasonable appreciation of the needs of the industry, and of course of educational institutions. Marketing skills, however, need to be improved.

IIT Kanpur has other major advantages vis-à-vis other institutions. There is much less red tape at this institute. The Continuing Education Programme procedures are particularly liberal: faculty members may carry out the entire marketing and management of the course, conduct the course, settle all the bills, and get the accounts audited by an approved Chartered Accountant;

Gross CEP Receipts (Lakh Rs.)

all this without any interference or restrictions from the Institute. This has enabled IIT Kanpur faculty to conduct a number of very succesful short courses in other cities by renting meeting halls in hotels, etc. The simplicity of these procedures is perhaps the reason that there has been a rapid growth in the Continuing Education Programme at IIT Kanpur (see accompanying figure) despite no active marketing or lobbying.

IIT Kanpur's location is generally seen as a major handicap for industrial interaction. However, for activities under the Continuing Education Programme, the disadvantage of location can be overcome by an increase in the capacity of the guest house on campus and by conducting programmes outside Kanpur. With all its other advantages, there is no reason why IIT Kanpur should not emerge as a leading Continuing Education Programme centre for science and technology in this part of the world.

Future Growth

Some suggestions towards new initiatives for growth are:

• Fix targets for the growth of continuing education activities in each department of the Institute, and encourage Department Heads to achieve these targets.

• Encourage development of a larger number of high-value short courses. During 1996-97, 50% of the income of continuing education activities came from only three (10%) courses.

• Focus on growth in sponsored continuing education activities where the entire course is run for (or paid by) a single organisation. Such courses require less marketing and administrative effort than that required for courses that are "open to all."

• Tap donor agencies (ADB, UNESCO , UNICEF , etc.) for conducting programmes for participants from other developing countries.

• Conduct programmes in other countries of the subcontinent.

• Develop marketing skills at the institute level. This would be useful for faculty members who, in any case, are better at academics than at marketing.

• Develop a system and infrastructure where the Institute can manage the total administration of the continuing education activities, while the faculty members may choose to do only the planning of the courses and the teaching. Currently, concerned faculty members are entirely on their own for the administration, which takes a lot of time, and hence, faculty members are hesitant to take up more activities under the Continuing Education Programme.

• Develop standard modules under Continuing Education Programme for non-specialists in general areas of management, psychology, economics, computer literacy, etc. There is a substantial market for such activities.

Clearly, there is an enormous potential for growth. The Institute is actively engaged in further developing the infrastructure that supports the Continuing Education Programme. Many faculty members are working towards developing the relevant courses. There is renewed vigour at IIT Kanpur to bridge the gap between the state-of-the-art and the state-of-the-practice.

For more details, contact:

Professor Sudhir K Jain

Coordinator, CDTE and QIP

Department of Civil Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Kanpur 208016

Telephone: (0512) 59 7795

e-mail: skjain@iitk.ac.in

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