World Bank Learning Seminar Quality Assurance in Tertiary Education CIEP, Sevres, France, June 1820,

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World Bank Learning SeminarQuality Assurance in
Tertiary Education(CIEP, Sevres, France, June
18-20, 2006)

• Welcome to presentation by
• Prof. V. S. Prasad
• Director, NAAC, India

• on
• Indian Experience on Quality Assurance

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Higher education system in India The context

• Long history of advanced education
• Hindu - Gurukulas Buddhist - Viharas
  Quaremic - Madarasas
• Modern institutions of Higher Education
  1857
• Three universities at Bombay (Mumbai) ,
  Madras(Chennai) and Calcutta (Kolkata)
• Large size
• 356    - Universities (includes Central,
  State, Private, Deemed and Institutions of
  National Importance)
• 17625 Colleges (Includes affiliated,
  constituent, autonomous, public aided and
  private etc.)
• 10.5 million students (Source University
  Grants Commission, India)
• Huge Diversity
• Higher Education is in the concurrent
  list. National and provincial Governments have a
  role of play in this sector Higher education
  mostly is in public domain (80 publicly funded
  and 20 privately funded) Different types of
  higher education institutions in size, resources,
  systems of governance and ownership

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External Quality Assurance Agencies

• All these are in public domain
• Some private agencies, sponsored mostly by
  popular magazines, are engaged in rating of
  higher education institutions

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Frequently used terms and their context specific
meanings

• Quality as fitness for purpose ability to
  meet the stated purpose of education
• Quality Assurance as a process of continuous
  quality improvement
• Assessment is a process of evaluation of
  performance of an institution of Higher Learning
  and/or its units, based on certain established
  criteria
• Accreditation is certification of assessment
  given by the NAAC which is valid for a stated
  period of time and the recognition accorded to an
  institution that meets standards or satisfies
  criteria laid down by a competent agency
• Criteria as predetermined standards for the
  functioning of an institution of Higher Education
  that form the basis of assessment and
  accreditation

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Role of NAAC

• To assess and accredit institutions of higher
  education in India
• 128 Universities and 2879 colleges were
  assessed and accredited (as on May 21, 2006)
• To promote Quality Assurance in Higher Education
• More than 100 publications on quality assurance
• Number of awareness programmes
• Series of post-accreditation activities
• Promotion of Internal Quality Assurance mechanism
  i.e. Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) in
  every accredited higher education institution
• National and International collaboration
  activities

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Value Framework for Assessment of Higher
Education Institutions
The list is only illustrative. Institutions
may identify many other parameters/ activities
depending on their context.  
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Assessment Methodology

• Four stage approach
• Identifying pre-determined criteria for
  assessment
• Preparation and submission of self-study report
  (SSR) by the institution
• On-site visit by the Peer Team for validation of
  SSR and for recommending the assessment outcome
  to NAAC
• The final decision on accreditation by the
  Executive Committee of the NAAC

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The Criteria of Assessment
The institutions are assessed on a 1000 point
scale on seven criteria with different weightages
to each criteria as follows
Average of all criteria is taken to measure the
quality of performance
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Peer Team Constitution

• Universities
• Chairperson - Eminent Educationist/Vice-Chancell
  or/Director
• Members (3 to 5) - Eminent Educationist/Professor
  s
• Co-ordination - NAAC academic staff
•  
• Colleges
• Chairperson - Eminent Educationist/
  Vice-Chancellor/Director
• Member 1 - Professor
• Member 2 - Principal/ Educational
  Administrator
• Co-ordination - NAAC Academic Staff or
  External Member-Coordinator
• Person from industry/service sector as an
  observer

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A. The Grading
The outcome of Assessment
B. Peer Team Report - Peer Team prepares a report
with commendations and recommendation for
further improvement of quality of institutional
operations. It is given to the institution and
also is made public through website. C. Provision
for Appeal Appeals Committee with members other
than Peer Team Committee is constituted to
address the appeals of institutions on grading
awarded by NAAC
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Impact of NAAC

• Generated more interest and concerns about
  Quality Assurance among the stake holders of
  Higher Education
• Created better understanding of Quality Assurance
  among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)
• Triggered Quality Assurance activities in many of
  the Higher Education Institutions
• Helped in creation of institutional database of
  the accredited institutions of Higher Education
• Helped other funding and regulatory agencies to
  take some of their decisions based on the
  assessment outcomes

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The Concerns

• Appropriate methodologies for assessment of large
  number of institutions
• Identification of right things to assess the
  quality of provision
• Reliability of grading and relevance of Peer Team
  report.
• Recognition of accreditation
• Multiple agencies and co-ordination among them.
  
• Accreditation of cross-border education
• Limited Autonomy of assessment agencies

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The lessons of experience

• Government association and support is critical to
  the effectiveness of external assessment agencies
• Simple and quantifiable criteria of quality
  assessment will bring more credibility to the
  operations
• Transparency of the process brings more
  accountability and reliability to the operations
• Involvement of academia is critical to their
  acceptance of external assessment activity
• Internal Quality assurance systems and processes
  is a pre-condition for the successful operation
  of external quality assurance system
• E-assessment systems may have to be adopted to
  address the problem of assessment of large
  numbers and to reduce subjectivity in judgements
  of quality
• Quality assessment institution as a role model of
  quality is critical to the effectiveness of its
  operations

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We must be the change that we wish to see in the
world
- Mahatma Gandhi
Thank you