Quality Enhancement in Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study of SIMS

Abstract

Higher education imparts in-depth knowledge and understanding so as to advance the students to new frontiers of knowledge in different walks of life. Higher education is seen as a process in which the students are counted as “products” absorbed in the labour market. Thus, higher education becomes input to the growth and development of business and industry. The four specific functions of higher education are,

(1) To prepare students for research and teaching;

(2) To provide highly specialized training courses adapted to the needs of economic and social life;

(3) To be open to all, so as to cater to the many aspects of lifelong education in the widest sense; and

(4) To promote international cooperation through internationalization of research, technology, networking, and free movement of persons and scientific ideas.

In this paper, we have discussed the objectives of higher education institutes, reasons to worry on quality and various factors affecting the quality of higher education. The key attributes of these quality factors are discussed and compared with the quality levels of Srinivas Institute of Management Studies (SIMS) - a higher education institution with education courses in Management, Social work, and Computer Science/Information Technology. The various quality factors considered are:

(1) Curricular Aspects,

(2) Teaching - Learning, Evaluation,

(3) Research, Consultancy & Extension,

(4) Infrastructure & Learning Resource, and

(5) Governance, Leadership and Management.

Keywords: Higher Education, Quality Enhancement, Quality factors