CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TANSCHE), a body entrusted to ensure the quality of higher education in the state, will soon release a draft model policy on academic and administrative audit of higher educational institutions (HEIs) in the state, which is expected to help track student and administrative performances in these institutions. The draft policy is likely to be released on Monday.
As part of the policy, the first of its kind, the quality and administrative health of HEIs will be closely monitored, covering aspects such as appropriate curriculum design, examination evaluation system, and performance of students as well as teachers. The policy will also recommend ways to measure the research performance of the HEIs by keeping track of the publications made by PhD scholars, patents filed by the institute, and consultancy work undertaken by it for industries.
The policy will require the HEIs to ensure if they have appropriate student support systems on the campus, if adequate actions are being taken to ensure safety of students, measures taken for their mental well-being, and mechanisms in place to address grievances received from students of any kind. “The policy is designed to enhance transparency, administrative efficiency and academic performance and it applies to all HEIs in TN, however, state-run institutions will be our priority,” said MP Vijayakumar, vice-chairman of TANSCHE.
Notably, the TANSCHE had recently released a draft model policy on technology usage in HEIs, which promotes digitisation of all services and facilities available in institutions.
According to higher education department officials, TANSCHE is working on 12 such policies like policy on outcome-based education, infrastructure and equipment maintenance, among others, to improve the quality of HEIs and ensure accountability. The remaining 10 policies will be released in the next few months. Sources said TN also plans to link the release of a certain percentage of monetary grants to the HEIs on the basis of their adherence to these policies. The adherence to the policies will also be taken into account during the State Institutional Ranking Framework (SIRF) ranking.