Quality concerns in Technical Education in India

Abstract

Purpose – The paper aims to discuss current Technical Education scenarios in India. It proposes modelling the factors affecting quality in a technical institute and then applying a suitable technique for assessment, comparison and ranking. Design/methodology/approach – The paper chose graph theoretic approach for quantification of quality-enabled model. Further, the paper has validated the approach by taking examples of institutions and applying the methodology. Findings – The paper provides a systematic methodology to build a quality model for quantification of various factors in a technical institute. The qualitative effect represented in form of a single numerical index is a novel method for such representations. The illustrated methodology in the paper is equally useful for comparison and ranking of a set of institutes. Research limitations/implications – Because of the chosen factors in the approach, the methodology may not be equally suitable based on type and size of institute and the geographical location. Practical implications – The paper includes demonstration on application of methodology for comparing the quality in a quantitative manner. The dynamic model allows changing factors and/or their effects as per requirement. Social implications – In future, the methodology can be taken up by government/regulatory bodies and can convey the comparisons of institutions to stakeholders including students and parents. Originality/value – This paper attempts to develop a novel method for comparing quality that can be used by accreditation bodies.