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| Indian professors clear outsourcing test | |
| Kalpana Pathak / Mumbai December 11, 2009, 0:32 IST | |
Pankaj
Sarma (name changed), associate professor with an Indian business
school, earns Rs 1 lakh every month for evaluating papers written by
students in the US. This is apart from his salary of Rs 60,000 as per
University Grants Commission scale.
Like Sarma, many are reaping the benefits of outsourcing to India by many US management institutes and universities.
A year ago, India attracted around 10,000 essays for evaluation.
That number has grown three-fold, to 30,000 essays. Typically, a
professor in India gets paid around $20 per assessment and checks on an
average 120 essays per month.
A US-based academic advisory firm, Edumetry, liaises with two US
universities — Butler University College of Business and University of
Northern Iowa College of Business Administration to outsource the
services to India. Butler University’s business programme requires two,
300-hour cooperative internships. During summer, students are required
to complete a number of essays, each focusing on a different aspect of
the internship. The essays are then compiled into a 150-250 page
portfolio, which needs to be assessed.
“The concept is gaining popularity in India as it not only allows
the professors to make some extra money but also helps them get indepth
knowledge on a particular subject,” said Madan Padaki, Co-Founder and
CEO, MeritTrac, a Bangalore-based testing firm. Accounting, engineering
and medical institutes are also looking at similar arrangement. Experts
say outsourcing of such assignments to India is part of technical
communication, which is a $100-million market today and is expected to
reach $800 million by 2012, and over a billion in five-six years. This
growth is backed by a surge in outsourcing demand, improved human
capital and larger domestic customer bench.
Technical communication covers a wide range of products and
services, which include user manuals, instruction guides, product
overviews, illustrations/3D drawings, white papers, case studies,
brochures, fliers, websites, press releases, proposals, research
reports, newsletters, policy manuals and process manuals. The customers
for these services come from sectors like IT, outsourcing,
manufacturing, banking, financial and insurance, aerospace, defence,
hi-tech manufacturing, pharmaceutical, education and business
consulting.
“Technical communication space is growing fast and rising up the
value chain in terms of delivery for the domestic and global customers.
It is also an enhanced return on investment proposition, aided by
superior technologies and tools,” said Rakesh Shukla, managing
director, The Writers Block, a technical communication and publishing
services provider.
TWB has been approached many times by universities abroad for a
similar venture, but Shukla thinks the margins are too low in education
compared to defence, aerospace and IT space, which fetch anywhere
between $20 and $250 per hour against $10-25 per hour in education
assignments.
Globally, technical communication is 15 per cent the size of
software industry. In India, the trend is fortified by the growing
aerospace and defence sectors, growth of the digital economy and
growing focus on product engineering.
“Outsourcing such assignments to India is advantageous to US
universities as they get valued in three-five days against 8-10 days in
the US. Also, richness of grading is higher as it is done by a
qualified professor. We make sure that the scale we develop is not
ambiguous,” said a person who knows about the process.
Edumetry says leaving the mechanics of assessment to such
professionals helps faculty members at the universities spend time on
mission-critical activities like teaching, improving their courses and
doing research.
Experts believe this business model will not only help the US, but
Indian institutions as well by bringing a new assessment model into
practice. And with foreign universities planning Indian foray, this
would ensure ready market for international universities in terms of
assessment mechanism.
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