Nellore: Students, staff wary of academic audit report

NELLORE: With the annual academic and administrative audit report being sought by the department of higher education in AP, it has become an acid test for faculty members of government and aided degree colleges in Andhra Pradesh. The report is one among many initiatives of the higher education wing to transform AP into a knowledge hub with a world-class system of higher education, research, innovation and entrepreneurship and make the state into a global leader for skilled, work-ready and world-ready workforce.

Senior-most lecturers from other colleges are being deputed to carry out the audit and submit the report to the commissioner of collegiate education, AP. In addition to this, students and parents are also asked to assess the quality of education, facilities in the institution and performance of the faculty members.
According to an audit member, the rating of the audit team along with the rating given by the students and parents is going to be the basis for the promotions of teaching staff in the coming years.

The funny part of the audit is that students have been approaching the sa-me lecturers whose performance they have to assess, to fill the pro-forma pertaining to Student Satisfaction Survey since they are unable to understand the questions posed to them in English as most of them are in Telugu medium. There are 20 odd questions in the pro-forma related to the survey with multiple choices to answer for each question. The questions that revolve around teachers' efforts to engage students in monitoring, review and continuous quality improvement of the teaching learning process are beyond the capacity of the Telugu medium students both to understand and answer, a lecturer said.

He said if a Student Satisfaction Survey was made available in Telugu they would have been able to understand and the survey would have been more genuine. He said each student should be provided with this form at the time of admission itself and the survey must be taken at regular intervals. As the CBCS (Choice Based Credit System) pattern is being followed now, it is better the survey is conducted at the end of each Semester. He said the records are to be uploaded and same copy should be kept in the institution while referring to the practice of some institutions that only kept favourable reports.

According to the lecturer, the other stakeholders, namely the alumni and the parents should visit the college regularly and a record should be maintained. He said the academic advisers, the faculty members from different colleges deputed to a college should have advance information about their job and should be given sufficient time to visit and inspect. He has also underlined the need to encourage and give importance for the Research Component of the Institution.