Higher education institution plays a crucial role in society. They have garnered interest and generated various important discussions. The following research paper discusses the role of institutional social responsibility (ISR) in higher learning institutions. It gives a thorough literature discussion of the concepts of how higher learning institutions have impacted societies. Also, the research paper describes the various strategies that the higher institution should take in order to be accountable for their activities. Finally, there will be some recommendations of the best practices that the higher education institutions can implement in order to effectively conduct its operations and activities.
This explorative qualitative study examined the effect of short-term study abroad program (SAP) on nine faculty members of a Private University in India. The analysis of faculty professional identity in SAP has garnered significance due to the increasing success of such programs. Study abroad program are academic programs of short duration ranging from one week to eight weeks, in which faculty members accompanied along with students to other countries (Sachau et al., J Manag Educ 34:645–670, 2010). This research aims to evaluate the critical parameters and insights that truly reflect the accompanying faculty’s professional identity and growth. The findings of our qualitative explorative study found a sense of growth in both self and professional identity of faculty members. The presented explorative qualitative study is unique in adding value to the existing literature on the professional identity development of faculty, enrichment of faculty members’ understanding, and broadening the vision of participating faculty.
In the wake of the growing coronavirus crisis, 25th March 2020 saw a pan-India lockdown being strictly enforced across the country, initially for a three-week period—which was further extended several times, either uniformly nationwide or on a state-by-state basis. As was expected, this led to tremendous hardship for a large swathe of the country’s population. Amid all this, the education sector in India was unduly affected in several ways. Now, nearly a year on, there is still no clarity on when educational institutions will be able to open and function “normally”. This paper delves into various aspects related to the way COVID-19 lockdowns affected the education sector in India, universities especially. Offering a multiplicity of perspectives, the objective of the paper is to provide a balanced viewpoint on the way several dynamics of the COVID-19 lockdown in India panned out, especially the challenges that it presented to Indian universities. Following the methodology of interpretivism research philosophy, the paper relies primarily on secondary—yet credible sources of data for providing its perspectives. These especially include a multiplicity of online news sites and other publications that have been gleaned over extensively before providing pertinent information. Additionally, social media sites have also been tapped widely for this paper. While perspectives on such sites are frequently opinionated and subjective, a plethora of them when taken in tandem work towards providing a holistic set of beliefs centred around the primary theme of this paper. For data analysis, a thematic analysis has been used for identifying consistent themes gleaned from secondary data that has been obtained as described above. The findings of the paper point towards significant challenges faced by all stakeholders in Indian universities, with no clear resolution in sight, in the immediate future. As the ongoing vaccination drive intensifies, the challenges faced by these universities are likely to resolve gradually, over a prolonged period.