Careers in Social Media Marketing

Social Media is a platform easily accessible by anyone with access to internet. Increased communication for organizations fosters brand awareness and often, improved customer service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns. With emergence of channels like Twitter, the barrier to entry in social media is greatly reduced. Social media marketing is known as SMO or Social Media Optimization and benefits organizations and individuals by providing an additional channel for customer support, a means to gain customer and competitive insight, recruitment and retention of new customers/business partners, and a method of managing reputation online.

1.    Social Media Marketing Manager: A social media marketing manager oversees the implementation of different social media programmes for clients. Such programmes could include social bookmarking, news, networking and tagging sites that include Delicious, Digg, Facebook and Stumbleupon.
2.    Reputation Manager: Due to the nature of the Internet, there can be times when negative information about a company or product shows up in search engines. A reputation manager strives to have negative information removed or takes measures to lower it in the search rankings.
3.    Copywriter: While a copywriter is typically employed to write sales letters, brochures, websites or ads, he can prove valuable in the area of social media marketing as well. Writing articles for social bookmarking and news sites or strategic updates for social networking sites can drive traffic to a client’s website.
4.    Link Builder: Backlinks are one of the most important elements to online marketing. A link builder creates these links to lead to your website. Search engines view a click on a link to your site as a “vote.” The more votes received, the more important your site is in the eyes of search engines, and the higher your ranking will be. A link builder uses all elements of social media to place links and create high-quality backlinks.

Social media is also being used to collect valuable data on trends in the marketplace, as almost all networks now feature applications to track popular subjects. A marketing professional may simply research the number of searches and likes of a particular subject or could undergo a process as complex as creating quizzes and inviting users to surveys in order to gain feedback to be used in marketing research. Many marketing degree programmes are now teaching students these new methods of information gathering.

1. Social media strategist/digital strategist
Chris Marlow calls this job “the top of the heap” in social media. These experienced marketing strategists understand how to create social-media marketing campaigns and measure their success. They may oversee a social-media team at bigger companies. “They’re the people who put together a plan,” she says.

2. Community manager
At Spherion subsidiary Mergis Group, recruiting practice director Greg Bennett says he recently filled a $120,000-a-year community manager position with a major company. Community managers oversee company blogs and forums, keeping visitors coming to the site through outreach on social sites, and moderating conversation to make sure nothing libelous or insulting is being said. The job calls for marketing experience as well as work in Web publishing, copywriting, project management and social media. Bennett says his recruiting research turned up several other, similar positions already earning in the same range. “Everyone I see wants the same thing,” he says. “Someone who is a marketing person but has been heavily involved in social media – they know how to run online symposiums, draw people into the company’s community, and keep them in.”

3. Blogger
Posting short articles filled with links to related Web sites has become a popular technique for improving a site’s rankings in search engines, such as Google. Marlow says $35 to $75 an hour is typical corporate blogger pay. Many bloggers have journalism training, but others who enter the field have their own personal blogs and use them to audition for corporate blogging jobs.

4. Social media marketing specialist
The virtual-world version of a marketing specialist, this job entails taking existing company marketing materials and circulating them effectively in various social-media channels, says Durbin.

5. Search engine marketing associate
A lower-level position than a social-media strategist or marketer, search engine marketing (SEM) associates work on building a company’s results in “natural search,” the unpaid results delivered by Google and other search engines.

6. Online customer service representative
A growing number of companies are watching social sites for customer complaints on social media sites – prominent examples on Twitter include Comcast Cares and Best Buy’s Twelpforce. “There’s a lot of work here, because it’s so expensive to take calls,” says Durbin of JobsInSocialMedia. Workers with call-center experience who write well are ideal candidates to cross over into this field.

Teach for India Fellowship

A lack of education is the root of several major issues in India, and the right education for all our citizens has the potential to solve all these problems at one time:

•    If we educate India in the right way, our citizens will gain the necessary skills to survive in a competitive world. This would lead to better paying jobs and a higher standard of living, hence solving the crisis of poverty.
•    If we educate India in the right way, our citizens will have a broader mindset. This would lead to greater tolerance and an appreciation for all religions, hence solving the crises of religious violence and caste discrimination.
•    If we educate India in the right way, our citizens will be able to better understand the negative repercussions and immoral nature of fraudulent activities, hence solving the crisis of corruption.
•    If we educate India in the right way, our citizens will shy away from radical ideologies and will not be acquiesced easily, hence solving the crisis of terrorism.
•    If we educate India in the right way, our citizens will gain a moral conscience, and realize the worth of a human life and the position of women in society, hence solving the crisis of human rights violations.
Education goes far beyond writing your name, or reading a book. It is truly about transforming the entire nation.
India is currently facing one of the worst educational crises in the world. If you can read this page - you should feel extremely privileged. As an Indian citizen, the odds that you can read are just barely in your favor - 30% of India is illiterate. Besides the literacy rate being despicable

•    Our classrooms are understaffed (1 in 4 teachers will be absent on any given day)
•    Our teachers could be more engaged (Only 50% are likely to be teaching at any given time)
•    Our drop-out rate is unusually high (More than 1 in 3 children who begin primary school will drop out before reaching 5th grade)
•    Our education spend is relatively low (India spends only 3.3 percent of its GDP on education, compared to an average 5.8 percent in developed countries)
If we want to change these numbers, we need to wake up, and be the change. We need each and every citizen of India to be a significant part of the solution. We need to lead our country out of this crisis.
Theory of Change
Teach For India believes that in order for the country to achieve educational equity for all children, we need a movement of leaders across sectors who are committed to and will work toward ensuring that every child in India receives an excellent education.
•    To build this movement of leaders, Teach For India recruits India’s most outstanding college graduates and young professionals to serve as teachers in low-income schools for two years. In the short run, these young leaders act as a source of dedicated teachers in government and low-income private schools. Teach For India provides resources, training, and support to the Fellows so they can employ innovative teaching strategies and maximize their effectiveness in the classroom. During the two-years, Fellows gain important knowledge and experience of India’s educational system and its challenges, which enables them to provide solutions to problems faced within their classrooms and school communities.
•    In the long-run, Teach For India will build a powerful and ever-growing leadership force of alumni who, informed by their experiences and insights, will work from inside and outside the educational system to effect fundamental, long-term changes necessary to ultimately realize educational opportunity for all. Upon completion of their two years of service, Teach For India Alumni will collaborate through the organization’s Alumni Network, and regardless of the career path they choose after their Teach For India Fellowship, will work toward fighting educational inequity in India.
What does the Teach For India Fellowship entail?

The Teach For India Fellowship is a two-year paid assignment during which Fellows are placed as full-time class teachers in low-income schools. Throughout the Fellowship, Teach For India Fellows help close the achievement gap by leading their students to significant academic gains. In the second year of the Fellowship, Fellows implement a school-wide project to address one major obstacle to learning in their community.

Teach for India are Looking for

Applicant prerequisites:

Young and experienced professionals and students in their final year of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree, are encouraged to apply.

Undergraduate degree - You must have completed all coursework required for your undergraduate degree (Bachelor’s degree equivalent) from an accredited college or university by last week of May 2012. You also must have received a secondary school diploma in order to be considered for admission.

Academic Record:

Both your graduate (and post-graduate transcripts if you are a post-graduate student) will be reviewed with scrutiny before an admission decision can be taken. Applicants must also pass any coursework indicated in their transcripts as in progress at the time of the interview.

Indian national/foreign national status:

Teach For India accepts applications from: 1) Indian citizens and 2) foreign nationals of Indian origin. Foreign citizens who are not of Indian origin are not eligible to apply.

Commitment and Location:

All applicants must be willing to make a full-time commitment to teaching and living in one of our placement cities (Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad) starting June 2012 to be part of the Teach For India Fellowship. Fellows of the program will be full-time staff members of the schools in which they are placed and will work stipulated school hours, six days a week.

English Fluency:

You must be fluent in English to be part of the Teach For India Fellowship, as we will be placing our Fellows in English-medium schools and will conduct all our training in English.

Age limit:

ince the Teach For India Fellowship aims at building future leaders, applicants will have to be born after 1st January 1976.

Who we are looking for:

Teach For India is looking for applicants who will be leaders in the classroom and beyond. We recognize that leaders come in many forms with varied past experiences, so there is no one profile of an ideal applicant. There are many ways to demonstrate leadership qualities, and we view applicants holistically by looking for evidence of demonstrated past achievement: achieving ambitious, measurable results in academics, extra-curricular activities, and/or work leadership.

We will select our Fellows based on their emerging leadership skills, specifically looking for:

•    Ability to achieve ambitious goals
•    Ability to work effectively in challenging environments
•    Ability to think and plan strategically
•    Communication skills
•    Commitment to continuously improving performance
•    Ability to think critically and base decisions on data and logic
•    Commitment to the Teach For India mission
We also seek evidence that applicants operate with professionalism and integrity, and meet basic writing standards.
Teach For India Fellows
The Teach For India Fellowship is probably the most challenging and transformational experience of a Fellow’s life. As teachers in classrooms, Fellows have multiple opportunities to confront and tackle challenges, motivate diverse stakeholders to work hard toward a shared vision, create and adjust plans to move further towards their goals and gain the confidence they need to succeed.
Role of Teach For India Fellows
Every Teach For India Fellow has two main responsibilities, through which they learn leadership skills in a hands-on, results-driven environment:
•    Classroom Instructional Leadership
Fellows are full-time teachers in English-medium government or low-income private schools for two consecutive academic years.
Fellows are expected to lead students toward academic achievement. Fellows foster this achievement by getting to know their students in and out of the classroom; creating instructional plans to match the whole class’ and individual student’s needs; delivering instruction in an engaging manner; working with other teachers, administrators and community members to build skills and obtain resources for the classroom; and administering and analyzing assessments to ensure that students are progressing towards their academic goals.
•    School Transformation/Leadership Project
In addition to teaching, a Fellow implement a transformational project in the school and/or students’ community directed towards impacting any challenge towards the achievement of their students.
Fellows create innovative and sustainable solutions to this problem. To carry out this project effectively, Fellows research and plan the project; invest students, families, teachers, administrators and/or community members to help implement the project; and troubleshoot the project in its execution phase.
By designing, implementing and managing a small-scale, sustainable project within the school community, Fellows build upon their leadership and project management skills. These leadership and management skills are transferable and Fellows can utilize the lessons learned through this project in other work they do after the duration of the Fellowship. Through this project, Fellows also develop a deep understanding of the many barriers to achievement and the complex problems associated with achieving equity in education. This experience shapes and guides the methods through which Fellows tackle educational inequity in the country, both in the short term and long term.
Why should I join Teach For India?

Teach For India offers you the chance to make a real difference in tackling one of India’s most pressing challenges — educational inequity. By presenting you with one of the most difficult challenges of your life, the Fellowship will help you develop leadership skills that are critical in today’s dynamic and fast-changing global work environment. You will leave the Fellowship literally ready for anything — and with the experience to advocate for a future in which all children have access to an excellent education.

What are the profiles of Teach For India Fellows?

Teach For India Fellows make a very diverse group of people, brought together by their past achievements and their passion to eliminate educational inequity. They hail from all backgrounds of study and work and range between 20 and 35 years of age. They come from a wide range of colleges such as IITs, IIMs, St.Stephen’s, St.Xavier’s, Christ University, Presidency College etc and companies such as Accenture, McKinskey, Mahindra & Mahindra, IBM, Ernst & Young, Schlumberger etc. By joining the Fellowship, you will get an opportunity to work with some of the brightest and most enterprising brains of the country! The figure below shows the distribution of our Fellows by profile

How does Teach For India’s approach to teaching differ from traditional approaches?

Teach For India’s “Teaching As Leadership” (TAL) model is based on the belief that excellent teachers employ the same skills as excellent leaders in any field. The TAL model requires teachers to plan purposefully, execute effectively, work relentlessly and reflect continuously in order to push students to significant academic gains.

Through the TAL model, Fellows become extraordinary leaders who can help their students make significant academic gains in the short run and advocate for systemic educational reform in the long run.

Which standard will I be teaching and what will be the medium of instruction?

Teach For India Fellows are placed in 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th standard classrooms where they teach all major subjects - including English, mathematics, reading, history and science — with the exception of regional languages.   English is the medium of instruction in all Teach For India schools and Fellows are not expected to know their students’ mother tongues.

Will I be trained adequately before I start teaching?

Teach For India will work relentlessly to ensure that all Fellows have the knowledge and skills necessary to lead their students towards achievement. The Teach For India Fellowship begins with a five-week Institute in May or June of 2012 that helps Fellows understand curriculum, create long-term and lesson plans, present content to students in a clear and engaging way, facilitate student practice and assess student progress, among other keys to successful teaching.  Additionally, each Fellow will have a mentor in the form of a Program Manager whose primary responsibility is to guide Fellows to become effective teachers and leaders.

How much will I be paid during the Fellowship? 

Teach For India Fellows will be paid a stipend of Rs. 16,000 per month. If required to relocate from their home city, Fellows will be given a housing allowance ranging from Rs.6,500 to Rs.8,000, depending on the city in which they will stay. In addition, Fellows will receive an allowance for school supplies.

How will the Teach For India experience help me grow professionally?

Teach For India strongly believes that excellent teachers employ the same skills as excellent leaders in any field, and that spending two years in the classroom will help Fellows develop leadership skills, such as organization, communication, problem-solving in an unstructured environment, people management and resourcefulness, that are valuable in any sector. Teach For India will select Fellows who have demonstrated excellence in the past and will work with them throughout the two-year Fellowship to ensure that they take advantage of the experience to become extraordinary future leaders.

What options will be open to me after the Fellowship?

Teach For India’s first batch of Fellows graduated in April 2011. The 80 alumni are now spread all over the country and abroad in jobs ranging from consulting to education startups; and as students in top universities such as Harvard, Cornell, Chicago Booth and Columbia. Teach For India supports its Fellows to pursue their individual career interests by training and mentoring them and striving to build relationships with top schools, universities, NGOs, and corporates throughout the country. Teach For India has already established close ties with HDFC, Godrej Industries, Harvard Business School, IIM Bangalore, the Indian School of Business, McKinsey & Company, Tata Consultancy Services, Columbia Law School, Ernst & Young and the Thermax Group, among many others. Please visit to know about our alumni in detail.

As the experience of Teach For America alumni shows, Teach For India alumni will be in high demand in any sector because they have the experience of overcoming immense challenges and have developed widely applicable leadership skills. Teach For America today has 20,000 alumni, several of whom have started their own groups of schools or work in the field of policy-making for education reforms.

The Rhodes to Oxfords University: Scholarship

Rhodes House, Oxford, is the home of the Rhodes Scholarships and the Rhodes Trust, and offers facilities for educational and other purposes.
About the Rhodes Scholarships
The Rhodes Scholarships are postgraduate awards supporting outstanding all-round students at the University of Oxford.

The Scholarships provide transformative opportunities for exceptional individuals, encouraging them to fight ‘the world’s fight’ throughout their lives, and aiming to contribute to international understanding and ultimately peace.
Established in 1903 under the will of Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes is the oldest and perhaps the most prestigious international graduate scholarship program in the world. A class of 83 Scholars is selected each year from Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica and Commonwealth Caribbean, Kenya, New Zealand, Pakistan, Southern Africa (including South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, and Swaziland), United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Rhodes’s vision in founding the Scholarship was to develop outstanding leaders who would be motivated to ‘esteem the performance of public duties as their highest aim’, and to promote international understanding and peace.
Rhodes Scholarship selection committees will be seeking young women and men of outstanding intellect, character, leadership, and commitment to service.  The Rhodes Scholarships support students who demonstrate strong propensity to emerge as ‘leaders for the world’s future’.
At Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world, Rhodes Scholars join just over 20,000 students from more than 140 countries currently studying at the University, and are enriched by the stimulating and rigorous education and the vibrant cultural and community life.
Over 7,000 Rhodes Scholars have gone on to serve at the forefront of government, the professions, commerce, the arts, education, research and other domains. They are well known advocates for expanded social justice, and have advanced the frontiers of science and medicine. The caliber of Rhodes Scholars can be seen, for example, in their recent appointments and books.
The Rhodes Scholarships reflect one of the most visionary acts of educational philanthropy in history, making the Rhodes legacy one that is felt the world over. Today, Rhodes Scholars around the world also reflect their gratitude and commitment to the Scholarship by contributing, financially and in other ways, to securing and improving this life-changing opportunity for future generations.
A Rhodes Scholarship covers all University and College fees, a personal stipend and one economy class airfare to Oxford at the start of the scholarship, as well as an economy flight back to the student’s home country at the conclusion of the Scholarship. 

The diversity of backgrounds and contributions of Rhodes Scholars are reflected in the Scholar of the Week feature and for information on applying for the Rhodes Scholarships check the website.

Applying for the Rhodes Scholarships
83 Rhodes Scholars are selected annually from 14 countries or groupings of countries around the world. They are outstanding young women and men of diverse backgrounds and interests who show strong potential to be public-spirited leaders for the world’s future.

Selection in each Rhodes constituency is by committees comprised of Rhodes alumni and distinguished non-Scholar members of the community. Though the selection criteria are uniform across all countries, there are some eligibility requirements that vary.
General eligibility requirements and application information, along with the courses available for study on a Rhodes Scholarship, are available below

Rhodes selection criteria

The selection criteria, as found in the Will of Cecil Rhodes, govern selection across all Rhodes constituencies.  They are:
·    literary and scholastic attainments
·    energy to use one’s talents to the full
·    truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship
·    moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one’s fellow beings.
In general, committees will select applicants of outstanding intellect, character, leadership, and commitment to service.
The Rhodes Trust warmly welcomes applications from talented young women and men of diverse backgrounds. Selection of Rhodes Scholars is made without regard to gender, gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, race, ethnic origin, colour, religion, social background, caste, or disability.

Eligibility criteria for the Rhodes Scholarship
The following eligibility criteria apply to all applicants for the Rhodes Scholarships:
·    Citizenship & residency: Each applicant must fulfil the citizenship and residency requirements of the Rhodes constituency for which they are applying.  Please check the detailed information carefully via the country links.
·    Age: Age limits vary between constituencies and range from a minimum age limit of 18 to a maximum of 28 by 1 October of the year following election. In most constituencies, the age limit is 24 or 25. Please check carefully the specific age requirements for your constituency before applying.
·    Education: All applicants must have achieved academic standing sufficiently advanced to assure completion of a bachelor’s degree by the October following election. Academic standing must be sufficiently high to ensure admission to the University of Oxford, which has very competitive entry requirements, and to give confidence that Rhodes Scholars will perform to a high academic standard in Oxford. Individual constituencies may specify a 1st or equivalent. Please check the detailed requirements via the country links.  Some constituencies require an undergraduate degree to have been taken within the constituency of application.
What to submit
For detailed application requirements for each constituency, please visit the country pages via the country links in the website.  In broad terms, all constituencies will require the following materials in differing forms:
·    Evidence of academic record / transcript (complete or in progress) of undergraduate degree and any postgraduate study
·    Curriculum vitae/resumé or list of principal activities
·    Personal statement or essay (including, crucially, a clear statement of what the applicant wishes to study at Oxford and why)
·    Evidence of age / birth certificate / passport
·    English Language proficiency (where English is not the first language)
·    Photograph
·    List of referees (usually several are required) who can attest in confidential references to the character and intellect of the applicant, including academic, personal, extra-curricular and leadership achievements (and who should never include people to whom you are related)

Available courses of study and conditions of tenure at the University of Oxford

Subject to limited restrictions, Rhodes Scholars may read for any full-time postgraduate degree (including the BA with senior status over two years) at the University of Oxford.  The basic tenure of the Scholarship is two years, subject always, and at all times, to satisfactory academic performance and personal conduct. For the full listing of degrees offered by the University of Oxford, visit www.ox.ac.uk.

At the discretion of the Trustees, the Scholarship may be extended for a third year for those who take a recognized route to the DPhil.  The Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and the Masters of Financial Economics (MFE) are only tenable in the second year of the Scholarship.

Practical steps to making an application for the Rhodes Scholarships

Applications for Rhodes Scholarships for 2013 will open in mid-2012. Applications for 2012 have now closed.

Note to applicants: 
Successful candidates will be asked to provide original copies of academic transcripts (and other supporting documents as required).  References may be checked during application review, and any applications deemed fraudulent will be rejected. Authors of fraudulent applications will be pursued to the full extent possible under the law.

A Rhodes Scholarship is confirmed once a successful candidate has been offered a place in a Department or Faculty of the University and in a college.

The Rhodes Scholarships for India
For full information on the application process for the Rhodes Scholarships for India.

National Secretary for India
Professor Vir Chauhan
The Secretary
The Rhodes Scholarships in India
International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology
PO Box 10504
Aruna Asaf Ali Marg
New Delhi 110067 India
Telephone: +91 11 2674 2317 or +91 11 2674 1260
Fax: +91 11 2674 2316
Email: viranderschauhan@yahoo.com

Internal Quality Assurance Cells (IQACs] in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs)

Quality of Education now offered in many institutions of higher education, both general and technical, requires a thorough review and correction by the agencies concerned like NAAC of UGC, NBA of AICTE. Many Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs), specially technical and professional colleges offering Engineering, Pharmacy, MBA and MCA are almost forced to shut down as there are no takers. Thousands of seats are lying vacant in hundreds of colleges in Andhra Pradesh. Quality in any service or product is the hallmark that decides its consumer acceptability and consequential occupation of market space in these days of free flow of demand and supply factors. Though some attention is given for the maintenance of quality of products in the industrial sphere, it was grossly neglected in the service sector. A special mention can be made with regard to the deterioration of standards of education at all levels, primary, secondary, UG and PG, including Research.

The nation is already paying heavily for this gross negligence. Though statutory bodies like UGC and AICTE are created at the National level with a specific purpose of coordinating, maintaining and promoting quality education, they proved a thorough failure in this aspect due to their acts of omission and commission. The Universities and their affiliated colleges greatly drifted from their specified path, focusing more on numbers and resorted to all kinds of unethical and non-academic practices, policies and procedures making the students ultimate victims. At the end of the day, students who became the sacrificial goat are blamed and criticized for their lower levels of knowledge, technical know how, attitudinal deficiencies, disregard to value system and their ethos.

In fact, the role supposed to be played by the so called temples of learning is not up to the mark and deserves to be corrected though not condemned. The general apathy for the students overall development and efflorescence of their fullest personality by providing opportunities/ facilities for showcasing their prowess and potentialities by many HEIs for their own reasons and commercial motives is the root cause for this sad state of affairs. There are institutions which give priority to admissions and examinations only as if there is nothing in between. There are colleges indulging in all kinds of malpractices in the conduct of examinations to boost their pass percentage.  The classroom instructions, practical work in labs, workshops for hands on experience are receiving rude shock in these so called HEIs.

This does not mean that all HEIs are doing or encouraging bad practices. There are very good Institutions on the educational map of India having National and International reputation for their high standards and have carved a niche for themselves among the intellectual circles following scrupulously the best methods and methodologies. Though some people justify and reconcile themselves that this dilution and adulteration of standards of education in HEIs is because of their multiplicity in hundreds and thousands, the failure on the part of bodies like UGC, AICTE, Universities, State Councils of Higher Education, NCERT, SCERT etc., cannot be overlooked and forgiven. They cannot escape from taking this criticism. At least now they have to take stern measures to set right things to save lakhs of students being fed and nurtured in pernicious and polluted practices and systems adopted in many of our modern educational super bazaars. Then only India will have great future as Knowledge Hub exporting largest number of technical trained manpower to cater to the needs of both developed and developing countries.

If India is to rise to the status of Superpower by reaping maximum benefit of our demographic dividend, it can become only by producing intellectuals, scientists, scholars, academicians, technocrats, innovators of high caliber by bringing them up in HEIs adopting proved sound practices to provide quality education and not through our military/economic power, or by having crores of unemployable educated youth in the country. Only quality oriented products coming out of the portals of HEIs will elevate the status of our Nation and provide dignified and decent careers to youngsters. Such concern alone will make lakhs of UGs and PGs come out with employable skills acceptable to MNCs. The talk that our educated youth are not having employability skills, fulfilling industry expectations etc. can easily be countered by fixing achievable bench marks in all activities of all stake holders of HEIs, closely monitoring and  reviewing the progress by  a group of academicians and experts headed by the head of HEI, accountable to University or state/national level  bodies. This step on the part of all HEIs will definitely make every difference and our HEIs can also claim that they are also producing useful and purposeful UGs and PGs armed with correct Knowledge, Skills and Attitude [KSA].

It is in this context that creation of Internal Quality Assurance Cells (IQACs] in HEIs is being mooted by UGC, a statutory body created to monitor standards in HEIs, as early as 1956 through an Act of Parliament. It established NAAC as an autonomous body under Section 12 [CCC] of its Act in Sept 1994.  It is entrusted with the task of performance evaluation, assessment and accreditation of universities and colleges in the country. It is supposed to take measures so that all HEIs are empowered to maximize their resources, opportunities and capabilities. NAAC has been instilling a momentum of quality consciousness among all institutions aiming at continuous improvement and is triggering ‘quality culture’ by enhancing the awareness of Institutional Quality Assurance with all stakeholders.

All stakeholders are to be fully engaged in the endeavours of quality assurance of HEIs. Therefore, it is imperative that HEIs are motivated to establish their own internal mechanism for sustenance, assurance and enhancement of quality culture of education imparted by them as such internalization of quality would be invaluable in the enhancement of quality within the institution. The efficacy of external quality assessment would therefore be determined by the effectiveness of such institutional internal quality systems and processes.

In fact the IQACs were established in many HEIs, as post accreditation quality sustenance activity. They are proactive and functioning effectively on sound lines. Based on their success story, from April 1, 2007, NAAC is propagating to have such mechanism created prior to the accreditation in all HEIs which would help establish quality culture in them. The UGC has recognized this initiative and it has taken a policy decision to direct all HEIs to establish IQACs for which it has decided to provide seed financial assistance. It covers all HEIs, like Universities established under Central/State Acts, Deemed Universities, under Section 3 of UGC Act, colleges recognized under Section 2 f of UGC Act, all other non 2 [f] colleges affiliated to universities and all Institutions of National importance.

The IQAC is meant for planning, guiding and monitoring Quality Assurance [QA] and   Quality Enhancement [QE] activities of HEI. It would channelise and systematize the efforts and measures of an Institution towards academic excellence and be a driving force for ushering in quality by working out interventional strategies to remove deficiencies and enhance quality.

The IQAC Structure: It shall be constituted under the chairmanship of Head of HEI, assisted by a Director [Member Secretary] in case a University or Coordinator in the case of a college. This position may be held as an additional charge by the Faculty Member concerned or a new position of full time Director/Coordinator may be created. Besides Chairman and Director/Coordinator, there shall be five [in the case of colleges] eight [in the case of universities] senior teachers, one senior administrative official, two [in the case of a college] three [in the case of a university] external experts of quality management/industry/local community as members. All these members shall be nominated by the Head of HEI in consultation with the Academic Council in the case of a university or Academic Committee in the case of a college. The tenure of membership shall be for two years. IQAC shall meet at least once in a quarter. The quorum for the meeting shall be two thirds of total number of members. The Agenda, minutes and Action Taken Reports are to be documented with official signatures and maintained electronically retrievable format.

Functions: To develop and apply quality bench marks/parameters for various academic and administrative activities of HEI.

* To facilitate the creation of learner-centric environment congenial for quality enhancement.

* To take steps for faculty maturation to adopt methods for participatory teaching and learning process.

* To arrange for feed back responses from students, parents, and other stake holders on quality related issues.

* To disseminate information on various quality parameters of higher education.

* To organize inter and intra- institutional workshops, seminars on quality-related themes and promotion of quality circles.

* To document various programmes/activities of HEI, leading to quality improvement.

* To act as a nodal agency of the HEI for conducting quality-related activities, including adoption and dissemination of good practices.

* To develop and maintain institutional database through MIS for enhancing institutional quality.

* To prepare Annual Quality Assurance Report [AQAR] of HEI based on parameters/assessment criteria developed by the relevant quality assurance body like NAAC, NBA in the prescribed format.

* To arrive at bi annual development of Quality Radars [QRs] and ranking of integral units of HEI based on the IQAR.

* To interact with State Quality Assurance cells in the pre and post accreditation quality assessment, sustenance and enhancement endeavours.

The AQAR shall be approved by the HEI such as Syndicate, Governing Council/body for the follow up action for necessary quality enhancement measures. The AQAR shall be submitted regularly to the affiliating university, state-level quality assurance bodies, NAAC, NBA by a college. All HEIs shall submit AQAR and QRs and follow up reports to UGC as and when called for. The IQAC must create its exclusive window on its institutional website to regularly report on its activities as well as for hosting AQAR.

Benefits: Effective functioning of IQAC ensure heightened level of clarity and focus in institutional functioning towards quality enhancement, ensure internalization of quality culture, ensure enhancement and integration among various activities of the institution and institutionalize good practices, provide sound basis for decision making, act as a dynamic system for quality changes in the HEI, build organized methodology of documentation and internal communication.’

The State Quality Assurance cell [SQAC] and affiliating universities shall monitor the functioning of IQAC in the colleges and NAAC/NBA/other affiliating bodies shall monitor the functioning of universities and  Institutions of National Importance. NAAC/NBA peer teams will interact with IQACs.

The detailed format for AQAR of IQAC with 4 sections and searching 42 points in section B, if answered honestly, will unravel the realistic situation of not  only curricular, co/extra curricular activities of the institution but also probes the roles of stake holders of the institution, students, faculty, administrative staff, parents, local community, management, funding agencies, etc.. These 42 points pressurize/influence the persons concerned to do definitely something concrete and positive in the direction quality improvement in all spheres. It is noteworthy that UGC is providing seed money during   the Ninth plan of Rs 5 lakhs to each university and 3 lakhs to each college as one time grant to meet the establishment and strengthening expenditure of IQAC to all  universities and colleges which  are under sec 2 [f] and 12 b of the UGC Act.

Already many universities/ deemed to be universities/ colleges established their IQAC and reaping the benefits. The universities and colleges in AP are lagging behind despite the offer of financial support. Many professional colleges in AP realized that quality consciousness and maintenance is vital and crux for their survival. It is high time that they shall wake up and take earnest measures in the direction of quality improvement of education imparted in their HEIs. Let us hope good sense will dawn on the minds of those highly commercial managements and save lakhs of students from unemployability.