“Corruptocracy” Harms High Performing Faculty in Engineering Education

DOI:10.21742/AJEMR.2021.6.1.07

AUTHORS

Thanikachalam Vedhathiri,Former Professor and HOD, Center for International Affairs, National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research, Chennai, India

ABSTRACT

Higher education growth is based on supporting the high-performing faculty teams. If they are denied resources, funds, and autonomy, they can't contribute to the knowledge capital. In the last 25 years, many corrupt Chief Executive Officers of higher education in India have been suspended and the cases were filed in various courts. The CEOs got the posts due to a weak selection process. Based on this research, a theory on "Corruptocracy" has been synthesized which describes the corrupt and unethical administration by the corrupt CEOs who institutionalized the corrupt practices. Many of the high achieving faculty members are not able to contribute to the knowledge capital and move up in their career ladder due to "Corruptocracy". This is due to poor governance. The research is based on the data collected from 540 faculty members over 50 years using a naturalistic evaluation model. The research results provided important findings on the performance of the higher education institutes like slow growth, the suffering of outstanding faculty members, negligible contribution to knowledge capital due to not developing new programs & projects, and not focusing on the human and knowledge capital. The CEOs control the development of human and knowledge capital and give the highest priority to self and coterie development. The unethical administration has to be checked scrupulously through the conduct and institutional governance rules. The Board has to get six-monthly feedback from the faculty members and correct the deviations which will accelerate the output of quality knowledge and human capital. Considering the need for an outstanding CEO, further research is recommended.