Srinagar, Sep 2: In a first in J&K, the performance of the colleges would be judged through a comprehensive ranking system to be launched by Higher Education Department (HED).
An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that regarding this innovative initiative, Principal Secretary HED and Information Department, Rohit Kansal said that the ranking of all higher educational institutions in J&K would be carried out based on asset of transparent criterion and a unique index.
The department has roped in IIT Jammu as a knowledge partner to design the unique index as well as a special portal to collect the information and rank the colleges.
The MoU would be signed between the Directorate of Colleges J&K and IIT Jammu soon.
The two autonomous colleges of J&K – Government Degree College (GDC) Baramulla and Government College of Women (GCW) Parade would assist the Directorates of Higher Education in the unique initiative.
A core team would be drawn from GCW Parade, GDC Baramulla, and Director Colleges to help in the creation of indices and primary data would be provided by the department to the IIT team for the formulation of ranking indices.
The IIT team would be responsible for creating an index of colleges based on the department’s suggestions, creating an online portal and dashboard, and processing raw data to prepare the final college rankings.
The rankings would be a useful guide for students in deciding on whether a college was doing well in a general academic area compared with its peer institutions.
Earlier the perception data was the major factor for choosing colleges in J&K by the student community which was sometimes “misleading and amenable to manipulation”.
Now with this initiative, hard quantifiable data would provide a more reliable basis for building a ranking matric.
The reliance on quantifiable data presents a result or output-oriented approach in defining top colleges. The ranking would help evaluate institutions based on what they have achieved over the last year.
The performance of the college in a diverse range of activities including academics, sports activities, research, placement, innovation, diversity, and quality would be used to develop an index which in turn would be used to rank the colleges.
The IIT Jammu management has expressed happiness for being provided the opportunity to carry out such an exercise which would be among the first such initiatives in the country.
The Higher Education Department has already declared 2022 as the year of excellence and all the colleges have been given broad guidelines for achieving excellence under five broad segments: Achievements under academic excellence, enhancing skills and employability, research and innovation, ‘My College My Pride’, and rewarding efforts and achievement.