Overdocumentation & Accreditation Preparation

A three-page document I came across in a college was for documenting events they organise. It carried three stages like pre-event, event and post-event. Each part carried a number of columns to collect information which was indeed quite detailed. I am sure that many who feel like organising an event will be put off by this and might kill the very thought! What surprised me was that much of the  information sought is never warranted to impress upon any body that the college has indeed organised anything. It looks like in the fever to push documentation to its limits, the ones in charge leave no stones unturned. Perhaps under the impression that the more columns a document carries, the more impressed the assessors will be! 

The unanimous cry of complaint against the office of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) that it triggers overdocumentation is not always misplaced. It deserves to be seriously looked into as on objective analysis this is found to be true. Overdocumentation is the tendency to indulge in excessive documentation either through extending what is required to what is desirable and then to what may be appreciated to what the HEIs think to be unique. It either grows through dividing and subdividing the required categories or through expanding, extending it to 'apparently' related domains. Either way, it adds fat, and is a fit candidate for being put on a diet! This overdocumentation, they say, intensifies as the HEI gets closer to the dates of Peer Team / Auditor Visit for assessment. The question is one of being able to differentiate between documentation that is requisite and mandatory and the extra padding which the institutional leadership adds in the hope of securing higher grade. 

To document the activities of the institution and hence of the Depts, cells, clubs, Faculty members etc, it is necessary to establish the fact that the institution has done what it claims to have done, that it follows a set procedure, that there are Policies and SOPs in place. In that sense documents are evidence of the act. An Invited Talk or a Faculty Development Programme (FDP) or an IPR workshop is deemed to have happened with the support of the necessary documents which will vouch so. The series of documents starting from the early decision to have an FDP organised on the basis of an identified need which is reflected in the minutes of the relevant meeting to the feedback which is collected on completion of the event stand testimony to the event happening. Not to forget the geo-tagged photographs which will bear pictorial evidence. As an institution the HEI must document it's decision-making and action-taking processes and procedures. As this hasn't been a regular system for long in HEIs till the accreditation process came to being, it has become hard for the HEIs to fit in. The HEIs did have basic documentation in place related to admission, entry and exit of students, their marks and the like. But nothing like the meticulous documentation of everything which an accreditation process warrants. 

Trying to draw lines among the needed, the cosmetic and the irrelevant when it comes to documentation, one can say that overdocumentation is the result of the institution going overboard in its enthusiasm to stand out, impress and to be ranked higher. Often this is an outcome of blindly copying what one HEI might have witnessed in another HEI. This is neither because the accreditation body demanded so or because it is simply required. There are lots of appendages like this which have arrived at the colleges adding to the burden  of the staff. Certain colleges have something called Student IQAC, for instance. While the IQAC of a college already is meant to lead and advice on quality sustenance and enhancement of the whole institution, I don't know what is the student IQAC is meant to achieve. Will we soon have Non-teaching Staff IQAC, College Management IQAC, Faculty IQAC and the like?! How much is too much? 

To make matters worse many of the HEIs decide to go idea-hunting on the eve of their accreditation visit. Even when there isn't much time left for the Peer Team Visit, they would come home with a recently found system of documentation which will demand a total rework of the files already prepared (or cooked up!). The whole set of docs are scrapped and new filing starts. 

At times (or often?) the so called overdocumentation at the end is a result of under-documentation at the beginning. The IQAC shuts shop in many HEIs after the Peer Team Visit and pull up shutters on the eve of the next one. In such a context the file-making process takes off on a war footing. In this scenario, it is not always a case of over-documentation, but the burden of doing too much too quick that creates an impression of overdocumentation. The way forward in this case is to put a system in place at the earliest: a responsible one which takes care of affirming procedures and practices in the HEI, leading to effective, regular documentation of its operations. 

In this heat of documenting, let us not forget that the HEIs have, over a period of time, mastered the art of documentation and that the assessors too are aware of this. Some of us are capable of documenting not only what we have done, but also what we wanted to do, but couldn't! The proof of the pudding, hence, is sought these days in the interactions with those who cooked it, or claim to have cooked it. Not merely in the documents. 

I certainly am of the opinion that not only are the institution over-documenting, but also laying more emphasis on the documentation rather than on the action. Quality sustenance and enhancement is always rooted in action. If in the past it was a case of the colleges doing it and failing to document, these days cases abound where we document more and do less. Or do it just to document without deriving any quality outcome out of the act.

The switch to Binary Accreditation will help cut this down for those first cycle Institutions to some extent. The story-telling part will be minimised, though it may not cut down the overdocumentation as long as the institutions fail to internalise the processes and the purpose behind it. It is adviced that the IQACs go for an internal audit as to the documentation procedures and remove what is insignificant, excess. In spite of the presence of multiple stacks of files, a couple of minutes of interaction will reveal if the docs are mere docs or evidence of practices. Let us also not forget that we preach sustainability and green ethics at the other end. The excessive print, use of paper, power, not to speak of the precious faculty time and clerical labour, don't add up to support the environment too. 

Babu. P. K., Ph D