Self-financing internals: Vice-Chancellors lay out four steps to assess students
Academic auditing system, grievance redressal, transparency and summer courses were suggested by VCs to improve internal assessment.
Thiruvananthapuram: The committee of Vice-Chancellors appointed by the government to study issues related to self-financing colleges has proposed four components in a report to improve the internal assessment of students. They include academic auditing system, grievance redressal, transparency and summer courses. The committee headed by Babu Sebastian of Mahatma Gandhi University, and comprising Kuncheria P. Isaac of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, Dr M.K.C. Nair of Kerala University of Health Science and Dr K. Mohammed Basheer, Calicut University submitted their report to the education minister C. Raveendranath on Wednesday.
As per the report, all affiliated colleges should have an academic auditing system. The Academic Auditing system involves two bodies; the Internal Audit Cell (IAC) at the institution level and an External Auditor at the University Level. The IAC will assist the External Auditor. The documents related to internal assessment should be produced regularly before the Academic Auditors of the university. The Academic Auditors should submit a college inspection report to the university, the report pointed out. Regarding transparency, the committee wanted a web-based application to upload the marks/grades of each student for all types of internal assessments including daily attendance.
Grievance Redressal proposed was a two-tier system of Ombudsman. Grievances which cannot be redressed at teacher level, Head of department level, and Principal level can be filed to the Ombudsman at college level. Second appeal can be submitted to the Ombudsman at University level. The report also asked the universities to provide an option for Summer Courses for students to upgrade the internal marks or attendance. The internal assessment is a continuous valuation conducted during the period of delivery of the course. When a student fails to earn the required minimum eligibility in the internal assessment or in attendance, he or she has to repeat the course, the report pointed out.