Accreditation has been the most visible influence for reflective review within higher Education. NAAC, one of the professional accrediting agencies for most of the HEI’s in India, provides a regularized, structured mechanism for quality assurance and improvement through a process of Self-study and Peer Review. While each accreditation cycle is reflective of the functioning of an institution for a span of 5 / 7 years, institutions are expected to continuously improve their Academic and Administrative functioning irrespective of their current status.
Undertaking an academic and administrative audit from time to time will help an institution review the processes or procedures that the Administration and Faculty members use to provide quality education in their institution and department.
There are many approaches to review of an institution’s functioning. Xavier Board’s AA process does not try to second-guess decisions made by the stakeholders on curriculum enrichment, student enrolment, teacher profile, teaching-learning process, associated infrastructure, etc., nor does it attempt to “micromanage” the way teaching-learning is carried out or how the institution is managed. On the other hand it is a well thought of, curated, tested and comprehensive process.
The audit process is designed to verify the presence or absence of compliances and will look at practices and procedures that are detrimental to quality enhancement and sustenance.