NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission has made it mandatory for all institutes of higher education and universities to maintain an “Internal Quality Assurance Cell”.
At present, only the universities accreditated by the National Accreditation and Assessment Council are compulsorily required to form IQACs. “The IQACs initiate, plan and supervise various activities that are necessary to increase the quality of education imparted in an institution or college,” a senior UGC official said.
“The role of IQAC in maintaining quality standards in teaching, learning and evaluation becomes crucial and therefore it’s an important step towards improving the status of institutes of higher education.”
The UGC notification, issued to all institutions on Tuesday, including state universities, follows a Kerala High Court order.
The cell is supposed to have vice-chancellors as chairperson at university level and principal as its head at college level.
Teachers in universities, where these quality assurance cells already exist, said that the special panel’s job is to promote and determine quality related activities and issues through various programmes and activities such as seminars, workshops, symposia, conferences, panel discussions, role playing exercises, (model) demonstrations, case studies and academic meetings and any such kind of event or programme for all the stakeholders of the institution.
A 2016 study by DG Sawant, an academician from Maharashtra had said that “IQAC is a significant administrative body in any educational institution and promotes co-curricular and extra-curricular activities in the college.”