Special Commissioner of Collegiate Education G. S. Panda Das on Friday said the role of the newly-constituted State-Level Quality Assurance Coordination Committee (SLQAC) was important as it was to monitor the quality enhancement in educational institutions and provide guidance to them to meet the accreditation standards and ranking parameters.
He was addressing a review meeting on SLQAC and its role focussing on the steps and action plan needed for improvement of quality in higher education.
Advisor to NAAC Prof. Madhukar appreciated the fact that educational institutions in Andhra Pradesh had been achieving good grades. He said many engineering colleges in the State had secured remarkable ratings and suggested that a model be created showcasing the best practices and learning methodologies that had put these colleges on the top.
Vice-Chairman of the APSCHE P. Narasimha Rao’s suggestion on constitution of a State-level assessment body that could understand the requirements of the education sector in a better way was not agreed to by other memberss who felt that too many assessment agencies would dilute the purpose and affect the standards. Moreover, agencies might have varied assessment parameters that would not to be recognised by the Union government, they opined.
Vice-Chancellor of JNTU-Anantapur K. Rajagopal, stressed the need for continuous improvement of quality in education system.
Mr. Rajagopal also felt the need to recruit qualified teachers to increase the standards of education. Focus should be on research and error-free online database, he added.
Secretary, Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) Varadarajan thanked the RUSA (Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan) body for establishing the SLQA committee.
He said all universities in AP were competing for a place in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).
Principal of the Government College, Nellore, Mastanaiah opined that the guidelines in the new NAAC manual, especially on autonomy status and student feedback, were too stringent.
Two sub-committees
The members resolved to constitute a Quality Assurance Cell at State level that would function under SLQA Committee.
The QAC will have two sub-committees — one for technical education and another for general education — and it will have a full-time head with a separate office operating from Vijayawada.
The QAC will have short-term goals of achieving 100% accreditation to all colleges from NAAC, spreading awareness on quality initiatives, analysing peer team reports and their consolidation and transforming the institutions.
The long-term goals would be to find out a mechanism for continuous improvement through IQAC, achieve autonomous status for 90% of the colleges in the Sate, implementation of management information system and obtaining government funding for institutions.
