Looking Back: The Making of ACAS

Being a Founder-Leader is always challenging, though it offers privilege and opportunity. I have enjoyed the opportunity to lead Al Shifa College of Arts and Science (ACAS), a new undergraduate institution affiliated to the University of Calicut, from the scratch and after being at the helm for about four years, I am stepping down. There's so much of learning I have taken away from the experience and it has contributed much to my institution-building interests. 

Over the next couple of weeks, I am sharing the processes and practices we implemented at ACAS while establishing the College. Looking back as you move on in your career is interesting. It helps one put in perspective the pathways which lie ahead too! A reflection on the efforts undertaken, outcomes achieved, the roadblocks hit and diversions necessitated, will always help. What I am attempting is to briefly mention and comment on the practices set up and the outcomes achieved. I am sure this will be of use to many in the leadership roles in HEIs, though it will be most useful to me as I reflect on what we did! 

The Making of ACAS: Quality Assurance

One of the earliest acts of mine was to establish a truly functional Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) to Introduce and support total quality enhancement, ensuring meticulous documentation of the institution's activities. Though quality assurance is key to Institution building, the often excessive emphasis laid on documentation, that too hurriedly cooked out fast food mode prior to the accreditation visit, many have defined IQAC as a paper-body which springs to life on the eve of NAAC Peer Team Visits. At ACAS IQAC was set up the day the college was launched and it has since operated with an agenda that syncs with the institutional vision and HEI quality standards. As an umbrella body which monitors and scaffolds the multiple departments, clubs and cells of the institution, it has contributed richly to ensure not only that quality enhancement initiatives are identified and initiated, but also implemented in a sustained fashion. 

The various initiatives like Flipped Learning, Faculty Websites, Invited Student Talks and area-focussed collaborations, design and delivery of career-assured add-on courses and the many other such initiatives were driven by the IQAC. The system put in place for the regular, effective documentation was but one of the many IQAC took care of. ACAS never allowed the IQAC to be a body that is just in charge of document gathering and compiling. Alert to the unfolding global Higher Education scenario, the career-challenges, faculty upskilling, the changing nature of student and community character and expectations, the IQAC prepared it's annual action plans which are realistic, yet ambitious. If the College is ready to go for accreditation in its very fifth year- 2025 (NAAC demands either 6 years or two batches passing out as the minimum requirement), that is certainly a reflection of the manner in which the IQAC went around with its task clearly cut out.

True to what a Quality Cultivating body is expected to offer, the blue print for IQAC action was the Annual Calendar. The preparation of the Annual Calendar of the College preceded lengthy consultation with the various levels of academic leadership in the institution. From the Department Heads to club coordinators, the external members of the IQAC, the members of the boards of study which were constituted for the add-on and value-added courses: all were involved. Training Needs Analysis was done with the faculty members and the outcome was stitched into the plans too. The final document which emerged, the Annual Academic Calendar, was comprehensive but still not inflexible. It was reviewed periodically and revised wherever called for, though based on compelling reasons. 

Obviously from plan to practice is a long road. A good number of HEIs have begun to have Strategic Perspective Plans and, now, Institutional Development Plans too. Annual calendars are common but there is often a world of divide between what a calendar predicts and what really unfolds (or doesn't unfold!). Hence we placed a mechanism to follow up on the plans made, with clear support provided wherever needed. Till all faculty members and all levels of leadership began to take ownership and began to deliver on their own, we followed up. The results have been quite appreciative. Though a small institution, the takeaways have been disproportionately big. Quality must be all pervasive and must be imprinted in whatever an institution attempts and does. This is key to internal quality assurance and at ACAS, the IQAC took it as our mission statement. 

I am grateful to Mr. Rohith Ravi and Mr. Midhulaj, the two IQAC coordinators I worked with, for the wholehearted support I received. The fact that the whole staff internalised the processes and procedures set in place by the IQAC reflects the importance they attached to quality upbuild and continuous professional development. 

Babu. P. K.., Ph D