The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Fine-tuning education with students' help

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 27, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Fine-tuning education with students' help

K. Ramachandran

National Assessment and Accreditation Council launches novel initiative

- Photo: K. Gopinathan

YOU HAVE A SAY: The key to improving quality is ensuring active participation by students in the learning process.

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has launched a new initiative — Students Participation in Quality Assurance — that aims at involving students in ensuring and delivering quality in higher education.

In effect, it recognises the prime place that students have as the biggest stakeholders in ensuring quality in higher education.

"NAAC has always wanted to promote participation of students at all levels, in the teaching-learning process on campus. In the Indian context, quality needs to be viewed as an inclusive activity," says Dr. V.S. Prasad, Director, NAAC, which is headquartered at Bangalore.

The effort looks at total participation of all students and not only their representatives. The focus is on knowledge-mediated participation rather than on student electoral activity. The NAAC also wants to introduce a student charter and student feedback practices on campuses as part of an agenda. It began by declaring 2006 as the NAAC year of Student Participation in Quality Assurance. "We want to provide the students, including prospective students, with necessary knowledge, information, skills and tools related to quality assurance to help them understand their role in quality assurance in higher education.''

R. Jagannath Patil, deputy adviser, NAAC, says: "Everyone agrees that students are important participants in the process of learning. So we need to encourage their participation in decision-making. Their role is central in shaping the improvement of quality of the learning process, and higher education in general... "

Students, he says, can be involved in assessing the quality of the learning experience and environment in higher educational institutions; in reviewing the programmes; and evolving grievance redress procedures and complaints regarding quality issues.

Dr. Prasad talks about international examples, starting with the Luxemburg Student Declaration of March 2005, which called for making students "full partners" in ensuring quality in higher education. Peer reviews on quality of education offered by institutions will be considered trustworthy only if they are done under the supervision and ownership of HEI representatives, governments and students. The other example, he quotes, is SPARQS, a free service that is funded by councils of Scotland to assist and support students, students' associations and institutions to improve the effectiveness and engagement in quality assurance and enhancement in institutions across Scotland.

Institutions' responsibility

The NAAC charter looks at documenting an institution's responsibility towards students and students' responsibility of learning. It documents practices to get students' feedback on courses, on teachers, on the course and evaluation system, and overall rating of a course or programme by the students themselves. "An exit questionnaire is also being prepared for graduating students," Dr. Patil says.

In this year of SPQA, NAAC has planned a series of activities for making students understand their role in quality assurance in higher education; participate effectively in development and maintenance of quality of higher education and turn active players in creating an environment conducive for innovation and enriching the campus life. Finally, NAAC is also looking at ways to encourage colleges/universities to use electronic modes to ensure participation of every student in quality-related efforts; to develop student feedback on teaching learning and other related activities; and means to follow up on student feedback.

Workshops, periodic publications and awareness campaigns on best practices of student participation are all part of the agenda planned. NAAC is engaged in a series of consultations with experts and key stakeholders to launch this initiative as a movement by which transparency and democratisation of learning processes would become the hallmark of quality in higher education.

Details are available at the NAAC website www.naacindia.org. "Nothing for us without us" is the slogan for the NAAC year of student participation. The slogan signifies and reiterates that our higher education system exists for the students and functions with students as partners.

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