Report on one day meeting on 'Mentoring Open Universities for Assessment and Accreditation' on 20th August, 2019 at New Delhi

COL-CEMCA (Commonwealth of Learning - Commonwealth Education Media Centre for Asia) organised one day meeting on ‘Mentoring Open Universities for Assessment and Accreditation’ on 20th August, 2019 at New Delhi. CEMCA held the responsibility of conducting the meeting owing to the arising need for facilitating the Open Universities for the process of Assessment and Accreditation as suggested by the MHRD/UGC. The importance for Assessment and Accreditation is considered with an objective of achieving ‘quality’ of education.

The meeting was organised with the objective of preparing a ‘plan’ for proper implementation of the Accreditation and Assessment system in target Open Universities, application of methodology of assessment of the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and Online Regulations as notified by UGC. The Vice-Chancellors and representatives of 14 State Open Universities (SOU) and the Central University, viz., Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) participated in this meeting. The meeting began with a welcome address from Director CEMCA, Prof. Madhu Parhar, followed by a brief address by Dr. B. K. Bhadri from MHRD, Prof. V. S. Prasad, Former Director of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and Prof. Nageshwar Rao, Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU to the audience.

Further, two intensive presentations and interactive sessions on ‘Preparing for Assessment and Accreditation of Open Universities’ and ‘Assessment and Accreditation: Challenges for Open Universities’ by Mr. B. S. Ponmudiraj, Deputy Adviser, NAAC and Prof. Manjulika Srivastava, Director-CIQA, IGNOU respectively has been fruitful. Dr. Avichal Kapur, Joint Secretary, Distance Education Bureau(DEB), UGC, discussed on UGC’s Policy on ODL and Quality Assurance. Prof. K. K. Aggarwal, Chairman, NBA and Prof. Subha Sankar Sarkar, VC, NSOU, presented an overview of the ‘Academic Accreditation’. The meeting concluded with remarks from Dr. B. K. Bhadri, Prof. V. S. Prasad and Prof. Nageshwar Rao.

Further, Prof. Madhu Parhar summed up the day’s proceedings and noted way forward. Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi offered a vote of thanks to all participants.

The meeting observed its closure with an assurance that the open universities in India shall focus on working on their strengths and weaknesses for fulfilling and qualifying for the procedural requisites for accreditation along with providing proposals to further development of the proposed ideas of assessment and accreditation by Ministry of Human Resource Development, University Grants Commission and National Assessment and Accreditation Council, Government of India.