Quality Policy
Preamble
The quality policy of Bhagini Nivedita College (BNC) is derived from the vision of the college, which aims at ’empowering women through well-rounded and integrated education and preparing them for excelling in leadership and functional roles at home, society, organisations and country and enabling them to live up to their full potential’.
While the pursuit of excellence is embedded in all the 12 missions of the college, the quality commitment of the college is clearly enunciated in the last but one mission, which commits the college ‘to establish quality goals covering academic performance and administration, ensure its adoption by the academicians and staff and strive for continuous improvement in the quality of education and educational services offered’.
This quality policy document policy is integral to the setting of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) in the college in accordance with the UGC guidelines, which emphasises the essential need for ‘an internal mechanism for sustenance,assurance and enhancement of the quality culture of education imparted’ by higher education institutions and adds that ‘every College should have an internal quality assurance system, with appropriate structure and processes, and with enough flexibility to meet the diverse needs of the stakeholders’.
It also recognises the vital role that the teaching faculty plays in the pursuit of excellence and in this context, evokes the spirit of the code of professional ethics introduced recently by the University of Delhi, which inter alia calls upon teachers to cooperate and assist in carrying out functions relating to the educational responsibilities of the college and the university such as: assisting in appraising applications for admission, advising and counselling students as well as assisting the conduct of university and college examinations, including supervision, invigilation and evaluation.
This policy also realises the importance of the Model Student Charter developed by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), which not only makes the quality of educational experience provided to learners the ‘responsibility of higher education institutions’ but also underscores that ‘the students have a unique role to play in ensuring quality of higher education institutions’. The quality policy of the college endorses the students’ rights ‘for quality education’ enshrined in the charter and attaches great importance to the call given to the students to ‘demand quality education and demonstrate their commitment to quality education by accepting their responsibilities’.
This quality policy is initiated by the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of the college and issued with the approval Governing Body of the college and its full and unstinting support.
Objectives of Quality Policy
To facilitate, promote and maintain an institutional culture which is aligned with the mission and vision of the college and is capable of honest, transparent and critical self-evaluation and adoption of ethical practices;
To implement and sustain a Quality Management System (QMS), which will ensure compliance with relevant regulations and standards;
To create the motivating and facilitating conditions for improving the quality of teaching with the help of human resource management initiatives and professional development opportunities and programmes;
To empower the faculty and staff to update their knowledge from time to time for aligning teaching-learning with the real world requirements.
To create the conditions for improving the quality of the learning experience by ensuring the optimal availability and utilisation of learning resources and by continuously monitoring and evaluating the quality of teaching- learning, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities;
To provide supportive services and a stimulating teaching-learning climate which encourage student retention and achievement;
To provide mechanisms for feedback from students and other stakeholders in order to improve its services;
To establish and maintain a quality assurance system which ensures the continuous improvement of teaching, learning and all support systems at the College;
To establish a management information system covering measurable parameters of quality improvement to help in the effective management of quality assurance;
To develop, implement, monitor benchmarks/standards and/or targets for all areas of activity as found appropriate;
To establish an integrated planning and quality assurance cycle which is effectively communicated throughout the organisation and which guides all college operations;
To plan and provide training and development to build staff capacity to maintain continuous improvement systems;
To ensure responsibility and accountability in all relationships with its stakeholders including: students, faculty, staff, partners, the government and local communities
Statement of Policy
This policy is an expression of the desire and commitment of the college to achieve excellence in education through continuous improvement in the quality of its services and constant enhancement in the standards of performance consistent with its vision and missions as well as the regulations and guiding principles of the university by creating and facilitating a quality culture across the entire institution involving the management, teaching faculty and the entire staff with the help of a transformational approach for enabling the students to realise their full potential and serving them and other stakeholders in the best possible manner.
BNC will assure that the quality of its functions and services and the practices and procedures adopted thereof meet the requirement of ‘fitness for purpose’ as well as comply with and uphold the relevant academic standards. The specific areas of quality assurance commitment include processes and practices as well as resources and services relating to teaching, learning and research; assessment and evaluation; academic support and student progression; interactions with with stakeholder and the community; governance and leadership and the adoption of innovations.
BNC will use evaluative mechanisms to monitor, review, measure and improve the quality of delivery in all facets of the college including academic and administrative sectors, to ensure that the Vision and Missions of the college is achieved. These mechanisms will also be subject to the formal scheduled periodic review for continuous improvement.
As a constituent college of the the University, the college will actively participate in the initiatives taken by the university with respect to curricular aspects.
Quality Policy Implementation
The college has established an Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) to be driving force for achieving excellence through continuous improvement in quality in accordance with UGC guidelines to help achieve the commitments made in the quality assurance policy statement.
IQAC has been set up with the following composition
Principal – Chairperson
Coordinator – Member Secretary
Five senior teachers – Members
One senior administrative official – Member
Two external experts on Quality Management/ Industry/Local Community – Members
Two representatives of Students
IQAC may be expanded with the inclusion of more members as necessary. IQAC may also set up and promote quality circles for facilitating improvements in specific areas or functions. The IQAC will be the internal mechanism for planning, guiding and monitoring Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Enhancement (QE) activities of the college. It will be a facilitative and participative organ, which becomes a driving force for ushering in quality by working out intervention strategies to remove deficiencies and enhance quality. Its initiatives will be directed towards future and will rely on the transformation model of change by creating the necessary organisational culture.
The core responsibilities of IQAC will include the following:
It will develop a system for conscious, consistent and catalytic action to improve the academic and administrative performance of the institution.
It will channelise and systematise the efforts and measures of the college towards academic excellence.
It will work towards standardisation of activities and processes and strive for continuous improvements in standards and their achievement.
It will promote measures for institutional functioning towards continuous quality enhancement through internalisation of quality culture and institutionalisation of best practices.
Its goal will be to ensure that whatever is done in the college for “education” is done efficiently and effectively with high standards.
It will focus on improving quality and productivity as well decrease costs constantly.
It will help develop a sound basis for decisions required for improving institutional functioning and the building of an organised methodology of documentation and internal communication
It will establish procedures and modalities to collect data and information on various aspects of institutional functioning for enabling easier and faster decision making
It will evolve mechanisms and procedures for ensuring i) Timely, efficient and progressive performance of academic, administrative and financial tasks; ii) The relevance and quality of academic and research programmes; iii) Optimization and integration of modern methods of teaching and learning; iv) The credibility of evaluation procedures; v) Adequacy, maintenance and proper allocation of support structure and services; vi) Sharing of research findings and networking with other institutions in India and abroad.
It will seek to achieve quality improvement by developing leadership and by focusing on human resource development through education and training including on the job training, which will help people do their job better.
It will place special emphasis will on enabling everyone to do their jobs to the best of their abilities through self-improvement programmes and to ensure that all available talent within the college is fully utilised for improving quality and achieving excellence.
It will also develop appropriate communication strategies not only for keeping all the stakeholders but also for motivating them to support and contribute to the success of quality improvement initiatives
It will promote enhanced interaction between students and faculty as the core requirement of the quality system by directly focusing on improving the learning experience of students.
It will enhance quality awareness within the institution and establish the credibility for external accreditation.
Its activities will be focused on helping the process of internalisation of quality and play a catalytic role in bringing about performance improvements by facilitating the development and adoption standards and their periodic review and revision as necessary
It will also work towards ensuring heightened level of clarity and focus in institutional functioning towards quality enhancement and for the internalisation of the quality culture.
It will bring about greater coordination among various departments and activities of the institution and institutionalisation of all good practices so as to give the quest for quality the benefits of collective synergy.
It will act as key driver of continuous improvement in quality by adopting continuous cycles of planning, live testing, checking and studying their effects through proper analysis of test results, implementing the plan in full and then take up further planning for the next cycle of improvements
IQAC will coordinate the creation of an exclusive window on the college website to regularly inform the students and other stakeholders about all its initiatives and make available all the relevant, reports, documents, templates and data. It will also collect and publish objective and unbiased data relating to quality related performance parameters and their achievements.
Besides shouldering the broad responsibilities, IQAC will also be responsible for specific functions required to respond to internal and external stakeholders.
The following are some of the specific functions focused on internal stakeholders:-
IQAC will facilitate the development and application of quality benchmarks/parameters/templates for the various academic and administrative activities of the College and compile these in to a quality manual, which is easily accessible to everyone
IQAC will facilitate the creation of a learner-centric environment conducive for quality education and faculty maturation to adopt the required knowledge and technology for participatory teaching and learning process;
IQAC will promote the setting up of Quality Circles with the participation of students wherever feasible for identifying, studying, experimenting and recommending quality improvement measures in any specific area or for any specific purpose.
IQAC will coordinate the organization of workshops, seminars on quality related themes;
IQAC will coordinate the arrangement for feedback responses from students, parents and other stakeholders on quality-related institutional processes;
IQAC will disseminate information on the various quality parameters of higher education, which are applicable to the college;
IQAC will coordinate the proper documentation of the various programmes/activities of the College, leading to quality improvement;
IQAC will act as a nodal agency of the college for coordinating quality-related activities, including adoption and dissemination of good practices
IQAC will coordinate development and maintenance of a management information database for the purpose of maintaining / enhancing the institutional quality;
The following are some of the specific functions focused on external stakeholders:-
IQAC will prepare the Annual Quality Assurance Report (AQAR) covering all the quality parameters/assessment criteria prescribed by UGC and NAAC and submit these to all the concerned supervisory bodies after due approval by the Governing Body.
IQAC will also prepare a follow up agenda based on the AQAR for driving the process of continuous improvement in quality and obtain the necessary approvals and resources for initiating the next cycle of quality enhancement measures.
IQAC will also regularly submit AQAR to the University of Delhi as well as to state level quality assurance bodies and NAAC