PAGE 14 DY NAMISM ( E )
# ISMEianWrites
Dr . Shampa Nandi ,
Dr . Shyam Prasad
Internal Marketing – An Essential Condition for Improving the Quality of Indian Higher Education ?
Education in India started at 3 rd century B . C , mostly focussed on religious education and imparting knowledge orally . Education was free , but normally well off students used to donate some “ Gurudakshina ” to their gurus as a token of respect and appreciation . In the medieval period , Indian higher education system was flourished with renowned universities like Nalanda , Takshila , Ujjain & Vikramshila universities where students across globe used to visit . Teachers or Gurus , with high level of intrinsic motivation were highly respected in society and teaching profession was a high esteemed selfless profession . About one and half century ago the modern university system started in India with the establishment of Calcutta , Madras , Bombay and some other universities between 1857 to 1902 , modelled after British universities . As of 2014 , there are 677 universities , 37,204 colleges and 11443 stand-alone institutions in India . According to Kapil Sibbal , ex-union HRD minister India needs 800 new universities to be established by 2020 to meet the massive demand of India because of its aspiration of emerging as a global knowledge hub . But at the same time several recent studies have revealed that overall condition and quality of Indian higher education is dismal and except one or two , none of the Indian universities features among top two hundred in global ranking . Automatically question arises where exactly Indian higher education went wrong ?
Education sector demands very high level of personal contacts and quality of educational sector is highly dependent on the contribution of the teachers . In educational institutions students are considered as primary customers and again they are reshaped into final products to be sold in the job market . Therefore the role of teachers in higher education are very challenging . Teachers in higher education should consider teaching and research in a complementary way . Special emphasis should be given on assessment orientation teaching and research . Involvement of the teachers in higher education institutions also play an important role in achieving success of the institute . Again he would be able to secure and retain the coveted place only by fulfilling the needs of his students . In order to accomplish all of these , he has to find satisfaction in his work ( Rao , 2004 ). Education sector definitely need much spending in internal motivation . With passage of time teaching has evolved as any other profession and organisations play a large role in motivating the teaching professionals . Consequently “ Internal Marketing ” comes in the picture of Higher education sector .
Internal marketing seems easy to understand but mostly forgettable by the companies as they are more focused towards external marketing and creating a brand . In an institute where exactly does it fit , in HR , Strategic plan or in Marketing ? In a simple term “ Internal Marketing ” is the application of all theories and practices of marketing to the firm ’ s employees so that best people are employed and retained by the organisation and ultimately they provide quality services to the customers .
Success of any service organisation is dependent on the firm ’ s ability to create competitive advantage . Service employees are critical as they provide performances ( Lovelock , 1983 ). Jan Carlzon ( 1987 ) of Scandinavian Airlines was one of the first who referred the employees serving customers as “ moments of truth ” as they are primarily responsible to create and maintain lifetime relationships with customers . According to Chase ( 1978 ) in case of high contact services like , banks , health care , restaurant the quality of services are inseparable from the quality of service provider . Employees at contact points virtually shape the service outcome and hence become an essential part of product . Education is of course a perfect example of high contact service where teachers play an important role in service outcome . Internal Marketing has become a centralised theme of importance among academicians and service organisations .