The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Tiruchi News : NAAC favours quality assurance cells

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 11, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi

NAAC favours quality assurance cells

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUCHI, FEB. 10 . The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has advocated creation of internal quality assurance cells in all universities and colleges to promote quality of higher education.

Though the NAAC's accreditation was effective for five years, establishment of such cells would help the institutions ensure quality on a sustained basis, the NAAC Director, V. S. Prasad, told presspersons here recently.

The NAAC was in the process of guiding institutions to adopt the best practices followed in identified colleges, he said, adding that the `Students' Charter' it has evolved with a focus on group learning experience helped students understand their responsibilities, what they must expect from institutions and how to involve themselves in improving the quality of learning.

The NAAC, he said, was coordinating with State Governments to support higher education, acknowledging that resource crunch was a major problem faced by higher educational institutions. However, institutions should also know how to make an optimum use of the available resources. Commercialisation of education and entry of foreign universities of questionable credentials were the other problems confronting higher education. He hoped that the Committee constituted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to assess the quality of foreign universities offering courses in India would also go into the aspect of foreign institutions entering into tie-ups with universities and colleges in the country.

In the process of accrediting institutions in urban, semi-urban and rural areas, the NAAC undertook assessment based on common parameters including effectiveness of teaching-learning process, appointment of qualified staff, conduct of training programmes, and periodic up-gradation of curricula involving employment providers, he said, answering a query.

Calling for higher participation of stake-holders, including managements, teachers, students and the society to promote quality, he said 20 institutions in the country had so far undergone post-accreditation assessment, and 100 more would undergo the process in the coming months.

As many as 150 universities and 2,300 colleges had been accredited so far, he said.

The NAAC had infused transparency in its operation by publishing the assessment particulars of institutions on its web site.

Peer teams had been advised to stick to guidelines, he said, adding that in case of need, accredited institutions were free to approach its Grievance Redressal Cell.

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