The underpaid leadership of Self-financing colleges

The category called 'for-profit' institutions are similar to what we call self-financing here. The difference is that in 'for-profit' category there is a clear, legally sanctioned room for profit while in our 'self-financing' category, there's no such written provision as such, but it does generate profit. 'For-profit' is a label which directly indicates 'profit' as a clear  objective of these institutions and for us, there certainly is a degree of discomfort as the profit part is made so evident. It foregrounds the profit part disturbingly and many who are part of the system squirm a bit at the drop of the term.

But the way the HEI leadership is paid in self-financing institutions makes one  wonder  whether the 'for-profit college' label is more appropriate. Except for a handful of HEIs, to the best of my knowledge, the leadership of these colleges are grossly underpaid. The Principals, Vice Principals and IQAC coordinators and Heads of Departments which constitute the leadership rungs in these colleges take away an amount which is highly disproportionate to the position they hold and the work they do. In fact there are many HEIs where the payment of a Principal is almost on par with the the entry level pay of an Asst. Professor as per the Govt pay scale. If this is what happens at the highest level, one can imagine what is the payment scale as we go down the hierarchy. 

Often the Vice Principal tag is made to sound big and impressive so that the occupants of the chair (often there will be no special cabin or seat for them, anyway), are made to feel big with their names mentioned on the programme brochures and in college level committees.  With this cosmetic tag many of the poor souls are satisfied too! Lucky are those who are paid additional incentives/increments for the position. Similar is the case of the Heads of the Departments too. 

The IQAC Coordinator is listed here because with the rising number of accreditations and rankings in the Higher Education Sector,  a lot of work lies on the shoulders of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) office. Though this reality is accepted, very rarely is this reflected in the pay grade. The heavy burden the IQAC coordinator carries entitles her/him to a pay commensurate with the job. Here too often the ownership of the institution succeeds in impressing the person with the tag and  the person too gives in to the label, without any pay hike! 

There are many causes for this state of affairs. For one, in the initial stages, many of the self-financing HEIs (the whole sector was new in Kerala) hired the retired principals from Government and Government-aided institutions. Many of those looked at this as an add-on income to supplement the retirement benefits. They were happy to settle for less. The corollary effect of this was often seen in the work culture of many of these retired-reemployed leadership. They will arrive late at office or leave early. They will be available till noon and not on all days. They will sign the docs but won't involve in big, serious decision making process. This definitely hasn't worked in favour of the leadership, whatever be the reasons they can cite for it. Many are the Managements of the Self-financing colleges who are beginning to feel that they have to look somewhere else for the right candidate.

I recall taking to the Principal of a well-established self-financing college regarding collaboration between us. He said he doesn't involve in those areas. When the conversation went on, it was clear that he doesn't involve much! These individuals would like to have a place to go, a tag to carry and a place to return from, just to keep themselves 'occupied'. The HEIs would brag around stating that their Institution's Head is one who retired from an aided/government HEI and the public will be impressed. Such a position is equally damaging for the leader and the owner, I would argue. While the leadership holder should not accept a role which is highly compromised in power and pay while the ownership should not look to put dummies in responsible chair. This is a case where it is hard to say whom to blame more! But I would say, the one who agreed to accept compromised leadership role is to blame. 

Another cause is that even the capable ones among retired leadership from Govt./aided institutions who assume the head's role in self-financing institutions are not really aware of their worth and do not bargain for a good pay grade! Decades of being in the Government sevice perhaps hasn't trained them to be in that mode, in those skills. It is good to see that the self-financing sector in the state is slowly picking young leaders from among themselves now but still the pay grade part is still a problem. With simple arithmetic, one can calculate how much is the income of a self-financing institution with thousand students on roll (or 1,500 or 500 if that's the case). Even while considering the margin for non-payment, freeships and the rest, the amount which can be set apart for salary is easy to arrive at. This underpaid segment wouldn't like the matter to be brought to notice as majority of them either quietly quit or sit quiet.  But this is an issue which can't go unaddressed. 

- Babu. P. K, Ph D.