1

Quality Assurance in Higher Education –

UGC Perspective

2

MANDATE OF UGC

UGC, the Apex body for Higher Education in India,

is established by an Act of Parliament in 1956.

UGC in consultation with Universities or other

bodies concerned, take all such steps as it may

think fit for the promotion and coordination of

University education and for the determination

and maintenance of standards of teaching,

examination and research in Universities……

3

Institutions 1950-51 2012-13

Universities / Institutions 30 700

Colleges 695 35,539

(2011-12)

Growth of HE Institutions

4

Institutions 2012-13

Central Universities 44

State Universities 306

Deemed to be Universities 129

Private Universities 154

Institutions of National Importance/ Other Degree Institutions

67

Total University Level Institutions

700

Colleges (2011-12) 35,539

Higher Educational Institutions

5

Major Concerns of UGC in governing the

Higer Education

• Regulation

• Governance

• Access

• Equity

• Excellence

• Funding

• Quality

6

But, what is quality?

“Quality is never an accident It is always the result of intelligent effort” - John Ruskin

“ Quality itself is an elusive concept, an attribute of values, which

can not be easily measured or quantified”

Quality as it is perceived:

Despite the belief that education creates capacity it is accepted that quality creates potential to compete.

Quality is getting defined as doing ordinary things extraordinarily well

It is the end product of institutional response to the students’ educational and professional needs.

It is the cumulative product of both human and material resources

It is simply performing better today than what we performed the other day and preparing to perform the best tomorrow

It is a self-sustaining passion with no expiry date

It is accountability and efficiency at all levels

7

‘….meeting expectations and requirements,

through consistent performance, in

teaching and research….’

Quality is also a way of brand building exercise

for institutions with long term perspective in a

competitive global environment

Quality in the HE context …

‘Experience has shown that Quality alone survives’

8

UGC’s Mechanism for

Quality Assurance

a)UGC frames various regulations on different aspects of Education

b)UGC has established an autonomous organisation i.e. National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) for assessment and accreditation of higher education institutions.

c)UGC has developed various programmes for promoting quality and excellence in higher education system.

9

• The regulatory function exercised by the UGC can be

broadly classified into three categories:

1. Regulations for fitness of HEIs for grants.

2. Regulations for Minimum standards of instructions

3. Regulations for Minimum Qualifications for appointment of

Teachers and their pay scales

UGC Regulations /Notifications

10

• UGC (Minimum Standards and procedure for award of

M.Phil/Ph.D. Degree) Regulations, 2009

• UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities), Regulations

2010.

• UGC Regulations on Curbing the Menace of Ragging in

Higher Educational Institutions, 2009

• UGC (Grievances Redressal) Regulations, 2012.

• UGC (Mandatory Assessment and Accreditation of Higher

Educational Institutions) Regulation, 2012

Some of the recent Major Regulations of UGC

11

• NAAC, Bangalore is an autonomous organization

established in 1994 under section 12(ccc) of the UGC Act,

1956.

• The mandate of the NAAC is to assess and accredit HEIs

• Till recently the assessment for HEI was voluntary.

However, the recently notified Regulations made it

mandatory.

National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Bangalore

Accreditation status as on March, 2013

• Higher Educational Institutions

accredited : 5294

- Universities - 175 (700)

- Colleges - 5119 (35,539)

• Necessity of making all our institutions fully ‘quality

compliant’

• Quality is best controlled internally but assessed externally

for ‘quality assurance’

• Quality assessments need to be linked to a system of

rewards and disincentives

• Quality in HE to be treated holistically, both teaching and

research must be viewed as key determinants, particularly

for universities.

Why Regulations on Mandatory

Assessment

UGC Regulations

Mandatory Accreditation

These regulations shall apply to :

(a) All universities established and / or incorporated

by or under a Central Act, a Provincial Act or a

State Act

(b) All institutions, other than technical institutions,

declared by notification under Section 3 of the

University Grants Commission Act to be deemed

to be universities

(c) All colleges, other than technical institutions,

including autonomous colleges.

13

OBJECTIVES The Process of assessment and accreditation shall

have the following objectives :

14

• To accord recognition to quality and excellence of

education imparted by HEIs

• To enable students and other stakeholders to make

informed choices with regard to HEIs

• To facilitate HEIs to augment quality

• To facilitate HEIs to secure additional funding and other

incentives

• To facilitate HEIs for international recognition

• To facilitate students achieve learning outcomes

• To facilitate HEIs achieve effective governance

Mandatory Assessment

and Accreditation

15

• Apply within 6 months after passing out 2 batches or 6 years;

• The validity of accreditation will be for 5 years ;

• HEIs has to apply for re-accreditation 6 months before expiry of validity;

Duties and Obligations of Assessment

and Accreditation Agency

16

• Ensure complete transparency in its operations

• To get the views of students, teachers and other

stakeholders

• Soliciting the views of Stake Holders on self study report

• To publish the final accreditation on website alongwith all

relevant documents

• Complete the accreditation process within 6 months

• After accreditation the decision on withdrawal/

modification within 90 days from receipt of application

Assessment and Accreditation as

Pre-requisites

• HEIs will not be eligible for any financial assistance under

any scheme without accreditation;

• Any institutions will not be eligible for seeking deemed

university status without accreditation (except under de-

novo category);

• No University shall be recognised under section 12(B)

without accreditation;

• No College shall be recognised under section 2(f) without

accreditation;

17

Incentives & Penalities

• Will be considered for higher level funding by UGC;

• Penalty clauses :

(i) Repeal notification under section 12(B);

(ii) Revoking of deemed to be University status;

(iii) With holding of the grant;

(iv) Ineligible for any assistance under any general

and special assistance programme

(v) Declaring for the purpose of general information

to the public;

18

• It is expected that atleast 400 universities and 16000 colleges would be applying for accreditation.

• The challenges that are confronting us?

Strengthening of NAAC both human resource and in-house infrastrusture

Identification / establishment of multiple assessment agencies

Involving best academics in the Peer Team

To introduce the technology intensive process

Quality and consistency of assessments

The inherent limitations of the ‘one size fit all’ methodology

No universal methodology for assessment

Challenges and Road ahead….

20

Promoting Quality & Excellence and

Promotion of Research • Special Assistance Programme (SAP) (943)

• Centres with Potential for Excellence (12)

• Universities with Potential for Excellence (15)

• Colleges with Potential for Excellence (250)

• Autonomous Colleges (427)

• Academic Staff College (66)

• Networking Centre in Basic Science for training and

capacity building

• Rejuvenation of Basic Scientific Research

• Electronic Repository of Research Thesis

• Research Project & Research Award for Teachers

• Scholarship / Fellowship for Ph.D. & Post Doctoral

Research

21

THANKS