The Higher Education Department’s move to create a State Level Quality Assurance Cell (SLQAC) with the prime mandate of “motivating higher education institutions to undergo assessment and accreditation” has raised many eyebrows.
Various sections fear that the development could undermine the much-vaunted State Assessment and Accreditation Centre (SAAC) as it awaited approval from the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The sanction to constitute the SLQAC comes at a time when the SAAC, the State’s second attempt at forming its own accreditation agency, faced an uncertain future with large sections of the academic community questioning the need of its creation on the lines of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
Citing the increased workload caused by the cumbersome process, several colleges have voiced their disapproval towards floating an institutional mechanism that would require them to seek accreditation by multiple agencies.
The SLQAC, which has been proposed by the State Project Director of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), will be chaired by the Higher Education Minister and have the Secretary, Higher Education, as its vice-chairperson.
The government has nominated Vice Chancellors of the University of Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi University and University of Calicut to the panel. Ten other spots have also been filled up by the government with teachers from universities, government and aided colleges, who possess experience in the NAAC accreditation process.
Having provided a tenure of two years, the SLQAC has been empowered to constitute evaluation teams to scrutinise Self Study Reports, prepared by colleges, prior to their submission to NAAC for accreditation. It will also constitute ‘mock-accreditation teams’ to inspect institutions prior to visits by the NAAC peer team visit in order to suggest improvements.
However, Usha Titus, Principal Secretary, Higher Education, clarified that the SLQAC would not function as an accreditation agency, but only have an advisory role by assisting colleges in rectifying their inadequacies before going in for accreditation.
“The creation of the committee is in line with the government’s policy to assist all colleges to attain accreditation by 2020-21, a requirement that has been fixed for sanctioning new courses,” she said.
The senior official maintained that the SAAC remained part an integral part of the government’s efforts to improve the quality of higher education. “Rolling back SAAC is out of the question,” she said.
