Thiruvananthapuram: In a bid to streamline the academic activities in higher education sector, the government is mulling several plans, including the establishment of a comprehensive system for assessment and accreditation of institutions in this sector.The state higher education council had prepared a report in 2013 on establishing a Kerala State Assessment and Accreditation Committee (KSAAC). However, the committee, conceived as a separate entity, failed to take off. But unlike the proposal during the UDF regime, the new system would come directly under the higher education council.The new higher education minister K T Jaleel has been holding a series of meeting with the stakeholders before fixing the priorities. “The minister has proposed to institute a State-level Assessment and Accreditation Committee (SAAC) as integral to the state higher education council, with the distinct understanding that such a body can be instrumental to enhance quality. It is indeed a welcome move towards quality assurance,” said Kerala state higher education council vice-chairman Rajan Gurukkal.“NAAC has recently revised its means, measures and parameters of assessment to be more objective and reliable. SAAC can assist institutions not accredited as yet by NAAC and strengthen their preparedness for national assessment. It is essential to familiarize the institutions with the revised accreditation system and to equip them with scientific ways of show-casing their academic achievements,” he said.As part of establishing the assessment and accreditation mechanism, the higher education council is currently carrying out a survey on higher education institutions in the state. At present, the state government has no authentic data regarding the number of higher education institutions and the number of courses they offer to students.The accreditation of institutions in private sector are bound to trigger questions regarding the government stand on such institutions seeking permanent affiliation and financial assistance from UGC.The state government had been objecting to such attempts by certain self-financing engineering colleges, despite UGC offering assistance on a 50:50 investment ratio shared between the qualified private institutions and the UGC. “But since over 70% of higher education institutions remaining in private sector, the state government will have to eventually reach out to such institutions as well, if it means quality improvement across the sector,” a source in the sector said.

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