Examining critical success factors augmenting quality of higher education institutes in India. A SEM_PLS approach
Authors: Pandita Alka , Kiran Ravi 
Published: December 2020

PurposeOur findings show that the academic culture is base for quality teaching and education delivery and it impacts employee experience through employee involvement in decision-making and employee engagement demonstrating benefits for universities such as increased employee attraction, higher retention, greater productivity and improved student service. Higher education institutions that offer development opportunities to their faculty are likely to have less turnover than those that do not. Globally tuned curriculum matching the expectation of students one hand and developing a conducive environment for implementing the changes on the other hand is the need of the hour. Branding and student employability needs the focus of policymakers, and it can highly impact the visibility of institute.Design/methodology/approachThis research has been undertaken to examine the role of critical success factors (CSFs) for augmenting quality of higher education institutes in India. The aspects considered are: branding, employability, employee experience, student experience. The study tries to analyse their impact on overall performance. The results highlight that academic culture mediates between student experience and overall performance. The current research also indicates that academic culture mediates between employee experience and overall performance. Employee experience through academic culture emerges as a strongest predictor of overall performance. Student experience through academic culture emerges as another important predictor of overall performance. Employability was next to follow. The beta values were low for branding. The results highlight that for improving performance Indian higher educational institutes need to focus on branding. Implementing this model will enable educational institutions to focus on these predictors to boost overall performance and equip engineers with requisite skills through academic culture.FindingsThe results show that employee experience is the most importance significant performance indicator to enhance the performance of the engineering institute when academic culture is taken a mediator (Anderson et al., 1994; Owlia and Aspinwall, 1997; Pal Pandi et al., 2016). The direct effect of employee experience (Beta = 0.473) is less in comparison to the indirect effect (beta = 0.518). The student experience is also second important indicator that is very significant for the overall performance, and this level of signification is even more enhanced when academic culture acts as a mediator. On the other hand, employability of students (EM) (Ashok Pandit and Wallack, 2016) and branding (BR) play an important role to influence the overall performance of the HEIs. However, branding has least impact on the performance compared to the other indicators as it has lowest beta value (0.169). This reveals that engineering institutes need to emphasis on developing strategies to improve branding by participating in activities that enhance outreach and visibility of the institutes (Nandi and Chattopadhyay, 2011). The results of the study showed the academic culture acts as critical pathway to reach the performance peak.Research limitations/implicationsCompetition is spreading in the higher education sector with widespread consequences, and in order to effectively respond to the pressures, universities have to be able to draw attention and retain their precious human capital. Developing linkages for faculty and student will generate mutually beneficial sustainable outcomes. Institutes preferably be multi-disciplinary or inter-disciplinary and have both teaching and research focus of an exceptionally high quality. Developing diverse programmes and activities targeting at developing quality of mind, ethical standard, social awareness and global perspectives, let the students shape their own experience and growth. Solid linkages with industry to impart a practical dimension to technical training is must, and an effective semester internship in industry is a testimony of project-led teaching. Research excellence and quality teaching are the basis of quality education. Engagement in external collaborations that extend and deepen institution impact through increasing international engagements. In future, empirical studies can also be conducted on the AQAR model by collecting data through questionnaires based on the perception of students, and it can be tested through hypotheses employing R software to determine the extent of implementation of AQAR in EEIs in India.Practical implicationsThe results show that employee experience is the most important significant performance indicators to enhance the performance of the engineering institute when academic culture is taken a mediator (Anderson et al., 1994; Owlia and Aspinwall, 1997; Pal Pandi et al., 2016). The direct effect of employee experience (Beta = 0.473) is less in comparison to the indirect effect (beta = 0.518). The student experience is also second important indicator that is very significant for the overall performance, and this level of signification is even more enhanced when academic culture acts as a mediator. On the other hand, employability of students (EM) (Ashok Pandit and Wallack, 2016) and branding (BR) play an important role to influence the overall performance of the HEIs; however branding has least impact on the performance compared to the other indicators as it has lowest beta value (0.169). This reveals that engineering institutes need to emphasis on developing strategies to improve branding by participating in activities that enhance outreach and visibility of the institutes (Nandi and Chattopadhyay, 2011). The results of the study showed the academic culture acts as critical pathway to reach the performance peak.Originality/valueThe results show that student experience is the most importance significant performance indicators to enhance the performance of the engineering institute when academic culture is taken a mediator. The direct effect of student experience (Beta = 0.101) is less in comparison to the indirect effect (beta = 0.412). The employee experience is also second important indicator that is very significant for the overall performance, and this level of signification is even more enhanced when academic culture acts as a mediator. On the other hand, employability of students (EM) (Ashok Pandit and Wallack, 2016) and branding (BR) play an important role to influence the overall performance of the HEIs; however branding has least impact on the performance compared to the other indicators as it has lowest beta value (0.169). This reveals that engineering institutes need to emphasis on developing strategies to improve branding by participating in activities that enhance outreach and visibility of the institutes (Nandi and Chattopadhyay, 2011). The results of the study showed the academic culture acts as critical pathway to reach the performance peak.