Understanding the decision-making in higher educational institutions through analyzing interaction between constituents at different levels

Abstract

The major objectives of this project are to study issues in educational institutions where there were conflicts in decision making between different stakeholders, These institutions are governed by the law of the land and have statutes of their own. The power structure are either with the admin or are delegated wholly or partially to a student body. The project also aims to capture the role played by these bodies and their interactions in the issues under consideration. The first issue we have studied is the experience of women in higher educational institutions. Although women have started pursuing higher education in India, yet they are far from getting equal treatment at many institutions. We have taken one such institution, BHU, which is Asia’s largest residential university with over 35000 students. We have tried to observe trends related to gender equality in past decade talking to alumnus as well as current students. Major aim was to understand the rules and treatment of women on campus and its impact on their life. There have been incidents and protests in the past which have led to a change in the rules and governing mechanisms but, the differential treatment for girls on-campus is still evident. All these incidents indicated an inertia from the admin side to take concrete steps in the direction of establishing a system which is conducive to the freedom of women. The other issue we have taken up is universal access at educational institutions. The provisions for the differently abled at IIM Ahmedabad is studied in this regard. The perspectives of the different stakeholders along with the codal requirements for construction have been taken into consideration for the report. Based on our observations, we felt that the IIMA system, be it infrastructure or sensitization, still needs to be worked upon to make it more inclusive and one which is capable of meeting the needs of the physically challenged students. We studied the above two cases through testimonies from different students and analysed cases of conflict or general situations where some sort of decision-making was involved between hierarchy levels. For this, we tried to identify different stakeholders in these cases and understand their motives and perspectives behind the situation. All the cases are documented here as received in testimonies, followed by our observations and challenges at institutions.