Assessment, Accreditation and Ranking Methods for Higher Education Institutes in India: Current findings and future challenges E-Book
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- Herausgeber: Bentham Science Publishers
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
This reference presents information about quality benchmarks of Indian higher education institute (HEI)accreditation bodies namely, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and the National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF). The objective of the book is to enlighten stakeholders working in Indian HEIs on the recently revised accreditation and ranking processes, which are crucial to the career prospects of students. The contributors of each chapter include experienced NAAC assessors and educationalists. The authors present their own experiences in the light of the accreditation process and suggestions for the improvement of rankings in their institutes. Topics such as the student feedback system, student perception on private and public universities, student mentoring system, usage of ICT methods in teaching learning process, and integration of life skills into curriculum are discussed in this book. The information is presented in a simple, structured manner and is an informative resource for personnel involved in administrative and policy making roles in higher educational settings, with a focus on the Indian higher education system.
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FOREWORD
Higher Education has undergone rapid changes in the recent decade. There is a lot of transformation in the methods of teaching, learning, research and out reach activities. The present teaching learning experiences are augmented by ICT enabled methods and online courses MOOCS. The quality consciousness is increasing among the stakeholders. The growth of the institutes largely depends on the level of utilization of ICT enabled procedures, adopting the current trends in global education and redrawing their academic strategic plans suiting their local needs. The curriculum of the colleges should give a space to the students for acquiring employable skills and progression to higher education and research. The colleges/universities are expected to facilitate a vibrant, evolving ecosystem of innovative ideas. The institutes must reach to this level and provide education what the today’s world demands and improve academic performance through the intelligent use of information technology to enhance learning. The students must catch up the local employment opportunities with these strategies. This book volume is a right step with this direction to share the experiences of the teachers, students and administrators in the Indian context.
I am happy to write this foreword, not only because some of the authors are experienced, friends and colleagues for more than thirty years, but also because I believe the book chapters discussed all aspects of the education institutes. I also believe that teachers at every stage of their career can enrich and strengthen their teaching by learning the discussion, presented in this book. Contributors of this book offer good examples to explore important questions and new ideas. These ideas can serve as a starting point for stake holders that will strengthen the learning experience for students and the institutions of higher education. I hope it will inspire readers.
In short, the book offers a learning experience on the institute accreditation methods, ranking procedures and innovative pedagogy. I hope that this book will become a primer for teachers, students, teacher educators and administrators to achieve a better grade.
PREFACE
Higher education systems are undergoing a tremendous change, reaches an all time high in recent times. The success of the institutes depends on the adaptability of the technology in the education. The quality in the institutes is connected to the effective utilization of information communication technology (ICT) methods in the institutes. Documentation and data management in the HEIs are the key areas in this direction. The recruiters are looking for graduates from the accredited educational institutions. All the stakeholders are interested in these institutions. Though the institute accreditation is voluntary, there is a surge in approaching the accrediting councils for obtaining a better grade. In India, the accrediting authority is National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and rankings are done by National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) need to understand the recent changes made in the NAAC, NIRF India Rankings process for achieving the better position in the ranking ladder. HEIs have to enrich the learning experiences of their students by providing them with state-of-the-art educational technologies. Facing the NAAC and NIRF is a mammoth and a challenging task that requires experts with in-depth knowledge of the higher education system in India. Research works, views, reviews and experiences of the experienced academicians and administrators are presented in this book.
The authors present their experiences and interpretations of Higher Education systems by providing global perspectives on the issues and challenges. Suggestions for the improvement of rankings in their institutes are also mentioned. Some of the authors are experienced NAAC assessors. The importance of life skills, ethical values and their integration into the curriculum is highlighted in this book. The idea of the book is to help the readers to cope with the changed scenario in bringing academic excellence of HEI. Quality of teaching, student’s perceptions, teaching performance indicators are reviewed. The central theme in this volume is to analyze the new trends in HEI through the lens of ICT usage.
The authors and editors are greatly indebted to University Grants Commission (UGC) for its financial support through Government College for Women, Autonomous grants. I profusely thank Principal, Government College for Women (Autonomous) for hosting the National Conference through which the book project is made possible. I wish the discussions presented in this book open up new collaborations in emerging areas of education research. I hope that the students and academicians would be largely benefited from this book.
List of Contributors
Challenges of Higher Education Institutions in Assessment Accreditation and Ranking Framework Methodologies
K. Sreeramulu1,*Abstract
The difficulties faced by the higher education institutions in the process of accreditation and rankings are presented in this chapter with reference to the Indian context. The performance of higher education in India is critically examined in the context of global standards. The main impediments are observed through various committee reports, and possible suggestions are discussed. The initiatives from the Government of India are noted in this chapter. It is observed that the second and third rated institutes are suffering most in the maintenance of quality benchmarks. It is found that the documentation of all academic activities in the digital form is not properly done. Need-based courses and interdisciplinary programs that cater to the requirements of the local and regional community are important for the creation of employment opportunities. Inadequate financial support and a large number of teaching vacancies are the major concern for the institutes in maintaining global standards. Assessment and Accreditation of Institutions are compulsory for all the institutions, and institutes are encouraged to participate in the National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings. It is suggested to take into account the second-grade institutes' ideas and practices when they are available with a time stamp.
INTRODUCTION
In the post-independence scenario, being a democratic country, politicians give high priority to higher education in India. Under the headship of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Abul Kalam Azad, the higher education system underwent great
transformation till 1980. After that, the education ministry introduced the Human Resources Development Department (HRD) under the central government wing. With the continuous efforts of HRD, the quality of higher education is improved, and it has introduced a number of wings to check the quality of higher education institutes (Basant, 2014). India is the third-largest country in the world with good quality of English speaking people compared to China. America and China stood first and second, respectively, in students' enrollment in higher education. The higher education system is governed by UGC, which not only monitors the standards of the institution but also provides financial assistance under different heads. India is providing higher education through IIT, NIT, Central and state universities, and deemed and private universities. Along with the above-said institutions, a number of scientific laboratories such as IISC, CSIR, ICMR, BARC, ISI economic research institutes, etc., are contributing a lot to the higher education system in India. Due to various reasons, the Indian premier institutes have not been found in any place of the world university rankings.
There is also a proposal to award the Institute of excellence to some of the Indian institutes that produced high-impact on research-industry collaboration, which in turn creates job potential. These measures have also not brought reasonable positions in the global rankings (Agrawal,2006). On one side, the institutes are not able to attract the other country students, and on the other side, there is a lack of sports participation. The quality and quantity of research publications is another factor for the low performance in the global academic scenario. Even the premier institutes could not get financial support from the alumni for the development of the institutes. Often the institutes fail to understand the local job opportunity skills. In order to resolve the above-said problems, the universities, as well as, autonomous colleges should redesign their syllabus as per the requirement of employable opportunities. The outgoing student records should be well maintained, and the institutes use their services continuously so that alumni become strong in all aspects. For the achievement of the above-said goals, administrative support should be given to the faculty from the state and central governments. Highly qualified faculty should be recruited with the prescribed procedures in the institutes.
The financial support from the government is continuously increasing since independence, in terms of GDP 0.51 in 1951 to 4% in 2011. These figures are far below the global standards; Brazil 30% in 2011 (Reddy K.S., 2016). The institutes are making good progress both in research and academics, even with this low allocation of GDP. But the physical and academic infrastructure facilities are not sufficient to compete with the world-class institutes (Meyer, 2006). The institute repositories have not been correctly maintained, and the lack of correct academic information is one of the factors that the other country students have not joined these institutes. The institutes do not have any funds for the maintenance of facilities, and hence global standards could not be reached. The key positions like vice-chancellors, etc., are left vacant quite often. These problems are to be addressed for the improved performance of the institutes in India. Regulatory bodies in all academic categories supervise the functioning of the institutes and offer suggestions for their quality enhancement. But this monitoring is not being done digitally and with human intervention. The problems crop up these methods. The present higher education sector in India needs a critical examination through digital procedures to meet the global standards. The government has recognized this lacuna and increased the budget allocations (Reddy, K.S., 2016). The Government of India, under the HRD has taken new initiatives in the accreditation procedures and ranking methodologies to evaluate the quality of the institutes through third party digital resources. In India, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council awards grades based on the performance broadly on Teaching Learning, Research, Extension activities, etc. Evolution is entirely based on digital verification and validation procedures for authenticity and acceptance globally. National Institutional Ranking Framework Methodology NIRF issues ranks entirely based on digital records.
The major challenge for both the center and state governments are providing the right amount of financial resources to the institutes. The private sector is also encouraged to establish institutes for filling the gap of world-class institutes. Creating competition between public and private institutes paves the path for the stakeholders to choose the institute of their choice.
CHALLENGES OF THE PRESENT HIGHER EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN INDIA-SUGGESTIONS
The present policies adopted in the higher education sector are not in tune with the requirements of contemporary society. The globalization of education poses new threats in the gross enrollment ratio in Indian institutes. The colleges are not able to attract the students from other countries. Interdisciplinary courses, twinning programs and programs with field based experience needs to be introduced in the universities to improve the students job opportunities. A new emphasis is to be given on courses coupled with community based programs and social issues. A systematic approach is to be adopted to introduce need based courses. The poor physical and academic infrastructure, lack of research publications, large number of teaching vacancies are some of the problems in the higher education system. accessibility of higher education to all sections of society.
Research in higher education is very low. Colleges in rural areas are facing a lot of problems, poor infrastructure, underrated students, under qualified teachers. The Government of India is taking all necessary steps for removing all obstacles in the way of development and instructed the regulatory bodies to coordinate the efforts of the institutes. All the institutes are encouraged to maintain their own digital data bases of all academic activities and adopt ICT based learning.
Industry and Academia Connection
It is necessary to have a collaboration between industry and academia. Internship training should be made available to the students in the local industries. The colleges situated in the rural and far off places are unable to get the industry internships. Virtual internships are an answer to this problem. More budget allocations to the education sector is the need of the hour. Diversified approach is to be adopted for rural and urban institutes to reach the quality benchmarks.
Incentives to Teachers and Researchers
Teachers with quality research publication are to be encouraged with incentives. Independent Regulatory Authority for Higher Education (IRAHE) is to be established to check the quality of higher education in India (Abramo, G, 2015). Number of universities is also to be increased.
Action Plan for Quality Improvement
In all the monitoring procedures, the records are to be verified digitally. Digitization of entire records is suggested. All the academic activities are to be placed in institute repositories with a time stamp. The institutes are expected to maintain the records with self explanatory and should be verifiable digitally. Effective utilization of available resources is to be followed by the institutes and this also should be subjected to digital verification. A separate academic dean is to be appointed to look after the financial support and management. Reasonable fee structure is to be followed by the institutes and this should be checked by the regulatory bodies (Abramo, G., 2015).
Student-Centered Education and Dynamic Methods
Participation in all academic and extracurricular activities and better time management is a big challenge in the semester system for the students as well as teachers. In the rural and semi urban areas, innovative methods are to be followed for the curriculum delivery to reach average and below average students. Students may take up social activities and join student organizations. The colleges may ensure that their social activities should not affect their learning performance. New methods are to be adopted to address this issue. Participation in local rural professions should also be recognized and due credits may be given by formulating new procedures. Personal counseling, students participation in seminars, organizing college events by students may be given importance in the colleges.
Student exchange, networking with other colleges and retaining their regional and local culture, tradition, are necessary for holistic development. The research in humanities and social sciences need to be relevant to contemporary society. Major share of the research publications are from the premier institutes like IIT, IIM and National laboratories. The contribution from state universities and colleges are meager.
Status of Academic Research Studies: The researchers per million population in Japan 5287 and US has 4484 whereas In India it is only 119. The number of doctorate degrees awarded per year is far below the global average (Gruber, 2014, Liu, 2015).
Need Based Job-Oriented Courses
There are diversified needs in different regions and the institutes should cater to satisfy the requirements through their new courses. These courses need not be data science or software related but are specific to the local and regional needs. This is one way to create a job potential in tune to the local or area development. The survey reports, case studies and research learning are to be focused to develop these models in a structured manner. In the developing countries the policy makers should concentrate in creating jobs in the rural areas also by work from home in the areas of data science related courses. Integration of local and regional jobs to the cloud services would meet the real purpose of creating large job potential. The students in the rural areas may be trained in cloud architecture to hire their services from their home. The holistic development of the human being is the need of the hour as the ethical and human values are most important in making a nation.
Holistic Development
Creativity and nativity is essential for personality development. The development of any country depends on the capacity of its purchase power parity. As India is a big market place because of its population the production and consumption of goods can be made possible by encouraging nativity and creativity. The personality built up by the individual is more helpful to get a place for him in the global market. The colleges and universities should create facilities for innovations, entrepreneurship and start ups. These practices should be duly recognized by Accreditation and Ranking Framework Organization. Many of the ideas generated in the rural and semi urban institutes are often taken into account with the local enterprising organizations. But this was not recognized by the accrediting organizations as it is not fitting into their framework. The institutes are encouraged to record the ideas put forth by the students or teachers digitally within a time stamp.
Accreditation and Rankings
All the stakeholders have a role in the college feedback process. Alumni, Recruiters are not showing keen interest to provide feedback on the institutes. Sometimes they are not even available to the rural colleges. In that case Philanthropists and the general public should be included in the feedback process at all colleges. Nowadays, students do not frequently walk into the libraries and refer to a printed book and the college libraries are already facing financial crunch in adding new books and journals. The national digital libraries like shodhsindhu and shodhganga etc., are not being utilized effectively by the students. Awareness campaigns about the digital libraries are to be conducted by the colleges to the students and teachers and workshops are to be organized for effective utilization of their smartphone in reading the e-books. The assessment of the institutes broadly based on teaching learning, Research and extension activities. The NIRF 2017 has made it mandatory for all participating institutions to upload the data (submitted to the NIRF) on their websites besides making the same available on the NIRF’s website in summary form. This transparency has added to NIRF’s credibility. Most of the information is in numbers that allows easy computation once a methodology has been chosen. In the future interdisciplinary courses need more to get employment.
CONCLUSION
The reasons for lagging in the world rankings of the Universities are discussed. Documentation, industry collaborations, not recognizing the correct needs and problems of the local community not introducing the need-based courses are some of the problems faced by the institutes. Alumni support is not correctly tapped. The colleges are not tracking the students after the completion of their studies in the institutes. It is suggested that alumni enrollment may be made compulsory and is checked when they have joined in the jobs or at the time of getting financial support from the government for raising a startup. This would pave the way for strong alumni support for the institutes. Formulating a procedure of documenting the ideas and activities done by the rural and semi-urban colleges, which are the outside purview of present accreditation and ranking framework, is the need of the hour to bring them into rankings map.
CONSENT FOR PUBLICATION
Not applicable.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The author declares no conflict of interest, financial or otherwise.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Declared none.
