THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Universities and colleges should be able to create a start-up eco-system on the campus so as to make the students capable of converting classrooms to work stations, Governor P Sathasivam has said. He was inaugurating a one-day workshop on awareness on quality assessment and accreditation organised by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Bengaluru, UGC and University of Kerala held here at Kerala University Senate Hall here on Monday.
“The learning perspective should be to make the students enterprising once they graduate from an institution. It will enrich the country’s future. The principals should be the leaders of change. They should be responsible to make the education system beyond textbooks,” Sathasivam said. He also emphasised the importance of quality in higher education system. “The quality is a matter of concern. The campus should be a model to everyone and the authorities should ensure that all the yardsticks of assessment are fulfilled. A college in Thiruvananthapuram lost the NAAC accreditation due to students’ unrest. It is an unfortunate scenario,” Sathasivam said.
NAAC director S C Sharma, who presided over the function, said NAAC is being expanded to the rural parts of the country. “We have also formulated revised accreditation framework to improve the quality of education in the higher education sector,” Sharma said.
M S Shyamsundar, adviser of NAAC, said the council is actively collecting feedback from students as well to improve the quality standards. A student satisfaction survey is on the anvil in the revised system. So the grading system of the colleges will also be based on the feedback from students,” Shyamsundar said. G Srinivas, UGC joint secretary, Bengaluru, C Ganesh, VC in-charge, University of Kerala, also spoke. Former research consultant MP Rajan, NAAC assistant advisors Vineetha Sahu and Syam C Inda participated.