Rajan Gurukkal, the one-member commission for the Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC), has stressed the need to comply with the recent UGC guidelines relating to quality assurance by universities in Kerala.
In a statement here on Saturday, he pointed out that in spite of certain inherent constraints faced by universities, they could not be complacent about implementing these guidelines that refer to certain broad framework of composition, structure, and content of the course as well as the meaning of ‘credit.’
The guidelines are in the form of instructional templates of courses and minimum curricula, which in effect demands regular updating and sequential upgrading.
“Compliance with the quality assurance measures of this kind is extremely important for our universities and autonomous colleges which largely leave their undergraduate and postgraduate courses obsolete and shoddy,” Prof. Gurukkal said.
He pointed out a national-level standardisation, which should not be interpreted as homogenisation, of programmes, curriculum and credit on the basis of the norms of Outcome Based Education (OBE), is essential for inter-university equivalency of academic programmes and mobility of students.
“At present, students suffer due to the content imbalance of courses and disproportionate nature of credits,” he said.
According to him, the UGC expects all universities to follow OBE and Choice-Based Course System (CBCS) for ensuring quality teaching and learning urgently. However, due to insufficient working days and shortage of faculty Choice Based Credit and Semester System (CBCSS) is in a shambles whereever it has been introduced.
“Teachers are faced with heavy workload and unsustainable teacher-student ratio. If learning has to be improved, UGC and Ministry of Human Resource Development should address the issue of teacher-student ratio with top priority,” Prof. Gurukkal said.
