Evaluating Quality - Measures to Improve NAAC Ranking for Higher Education Institutes

Abstract

Quality in education is imperative and thus it is a matter of great concern for the universities, colleges and institutions to maintain it. There are varied criteria to measure quality and methods to improve it with time. A lot of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) offer courses across streams for the students to pursue. The success of an educational institute depends on the quality of education. Educationalists, policy makers, researchers and scholars across the world are working towards quality management for continuous improvement, student/faculty satisfaction and institutional excellence. The National Assessment and Accreditation Council, NAAC, an autonomous institution has been established by the University Grants Commission with the prime agenda of assessing and accrediting Higher Education Institutes(HEI), facilitating them to work continuously towards improving the quality of education. The assessment process is carried out in three stages, which comprises of, viz., Self Study Report (SSR), Student Satisfaction Survey and the Peer Team Report. In the NAAC’s Self study report seven criterion are used for assessment; among all, criteria II: Teaching, Learning and Evaluation carry a major weightage of 350 points. In this paper, we will be briefly discussing the quality measures that can be taken up by any HEI regarding Teaching, Learning and Evaluation methodologies to improve upon its overall score and ranking. A survey was also conducted amongst graduation level students from various universities asking them multiple research questions related to measures that can be taken up by the colleges to improve quality in teaching, learning and evaluation.