Academic audit -Tool for quality enhancement in Teaching-Learning process in higher education institutes

Abstract

Academic audit is a methodical and scientific process of designing, implementing, monitoring and reviewing the quality in academic systems in higher education. The academic audit provides a strategic planning and its implementation for the teaching learning activity in the institute. In order to ensure quality and effective curriculum delivery, in teaching-learning, quality assurance system like Internal Academic Audit (IAA) system is very much essential. This paper aims to discuss the effective implementation of IAA in the technical campus situated in Panvel, Maharashtra. Academic Audit is done thrice during the term as Pre Term Audit- before the commencement of the term, Mid Term Audit- during the mid of the term and Post Term Audit- after the term end. Total thirty four numbers of input parameters are identified based on which academic audit is carried out. For every single parameter in the audit format, the course owner is evaluated for complete, partially complete and incomplete status of that parameter as per defined rubrics.The score of all the parameters is converted to a scale of 5 which would become the score of that course owner and would be used for appraising the concerned course owner.The reports of the Pre Term, Mid Term, and Post Term audit would be kept with the audit team and the necessary corrections would be conveyed to the respective course owners at the time of the audit. It was observed that after the introduction of the aforementioned process, the academic files of all the faculty members were found complete in all respects and quality of assignments, teaching learning and evaluation process was improved significantly.