Controlling Quality in Higher Education
Accreditation May Be Best Tool

By Dr. Radhaber D. Khati

IT has been widely accepted that education in general and higher education in particular has been infected with a disease of a fall in the quality of education. Expressions like this are based even on the results of the traditional system of exams that has been put into operation ever since the inception of higher education system in Nepal. Therefore, even by judging with the standards of our old and almost decaying system of exams, which we are not wholly satisfied with to let they judge the knowledge and ability of our students, it could be said that quality in higher education has in fact been suffering. The damage is done more by internal rather than the external efficiency.

Lowest

The World Bank Report (2000) sheds critical light on this issue. According to the Report the top three faculties, in terms of student enrolment, Faculty of Management, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Education have the lowest level of academic achievements. The first year student pass rate in these Faculties show 24, 25, and 17 percentages, respectively. Therefore, it is natural that the concerns about it are expressed from all quarters ranging from students to the teachers, and parents to the politicians.

Need the widely encountered fact is that the greater the rate of failure, the higher the wastage in terms of public and private educational resources, efforts and times of the students and the teachers. The worst part of it seems to be, the greater the amount of educational wastage, the lesser the degree of trust among the general public on the prevalent system of higher education itself, on which they have been appropriating quite a large sum of money through tax and the fees. This wasted amount would, otherwise, have fed millions of hungry stomachs or have made literate half a million illiterates in a poor country like ours. Does not it hurt the feelings of a man who is, somehow, interested to know the way the nation's purse is spent? What can be more disheartening to such a person than to see all the, otherwise, noble thoughts expressed for the quality in Nepalese higher education, finally, coming down to a notoriously low academic level?

Hence, our experience and observations, supported by hard evidence of regular studies in the field, speak for themselves of the problems adversely affecting the quality improvement in higher education. There is an acute need for an educational policy-making agency at the national level, especially for higher education, in order to make and modify the educational policies as needed. It is required also for institutionalising uniform evaluation and recognition systems of higher education, so as to bring quality in the academic performance and the results of higher educational institutions. But no such agency has been set-up as yet and no such process is developed so far, to specifically and authentically deal with quality problem in higher education, even if there are regular comments and criticisms on the issue of quality in education. There is the need for a national policy with regard to the control and evaluation of the academic performance of higher educational institutions and also with regard to the rational system of self-evaluation in them.

Therefore, to effectively avert the present declining trend of quality in higher education, a time-tested system, already adopted with success at the best known universities in the world, is suggested to be tried-out with an inclusion of certain indigenously appropriate components within it. The system of controlling the decline in the quality and the maintaining of this control-system, for long, is termed as a system of accreditation. Hence, the appropriate process under this system of accreditation is suggested to be timely in order to perform the process of evaluation and recognition of quality in higher educational institution. This is so also to bring about the issue of quality to the forefront in order to suggest the concerned authority to work-out the suitable measures and also to follow-up the course of action taken towards it.

In order to initiate the work of judging quality in education we need to start from the very beginning. To start with, we need to encompass all the components affecting both the making and breaking of quality in education and tackle them item-wise. Toward this end, the commonly adopted measures in the highly developed countries and also at the universities of those having long and efficient work experience in the field, should be taken into account. In this regard, the strategy of regular accreditation of the institution as a whole, and not just the examination or the evaluation of students or the teachers for their regular or occasional academic performance, has to be taken into consideration.

This time-tested institutional accreditation system can be of great benefit if put in the hands of competent, sincere and sensible people. So, let us see what this system is all about and how can it work in the production of quality in education, as a major concern for educators, educational planners, administrators, and even the students and their parents? If we think of a system of evaluating and recognizing the quality of an academic institution, we need to come up with a strategy that works as a process of reasonably laying-out norms and criteria of evaluating institutions as a whole. This innovative system works by recognizing the standards of institutions and also by measuring their performance based on defined and approved criteria. Therefore, accreditation could also be taken as a system of recognition to be accorded to the institutions which meet standards and criteria that are put forward by an agency or association of competent people, constituted by higher educational authorities for the purpose. It does not matter whether it is an independent agency composed of concerned experts, or the one set-up either by the government or by university authorities. The main purpose of accreditation is to ensure and promote higher quality in educational programmes and performance, in that it could address effectively and efficiently the long lasting issue of the decline in educational standards, particularly, in our system of higher education.

Some other basic objectives and the purposes of this internationally recognized and widely accepted system of recognizing and grading educational institutions, called accreditation, are to prescribe measures for raising the standards of education. This is in order that the accredited institutions get preference to conduct investigations on the policies and practices of the institution to eventually improve quality in education. This is also to set standards/criteria for evaluating teachers' and students' performance in line with the academic and co-curricular objectives of the institution. Furthermore, it is conducted also to disseminate quality in education based on the criteria regarding accreditation of the institutions of higher education, as well as to examine the institutional performance objectively and scientifically. Academic performance and the educational support services of students, teachers and the administrators, as players within the university organization for the overall development of the institution, are also supposed to be appraised and evaluated.

Right Direction

In the beginning, setting up of an accrediting agency might look like the creation of an extra small bureaucracy within the already highly bureaucratised university system. But, when this specialised quality control system starts working and begins delivering fruits we would realise that we have set our steps to the right direction.

33rd World Standards Day
One Standard Everywhere

By Lalit Kumar Vaidya

EACH year on 14 October, the members of International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) celebrate World Standards Day, which is a means of paying tribute to the collaborative efforts of the thousands of experts worldwide who develop the voluntary technical agreements that are published as international standards.

Aim

The aim of World Standards Day is to raise awareness of the importance of global standardisation to the world economy and to promote its role in helping meet the needs of business, industry, government and consumers worldwide. The international event pays tribute to the thousands of volunteers around the world.

The first World Standards Day was celebrated on 14 October, 1970. The decision for World Standards Day to be celebrated jointly by both ISO and IEC members was taken in 1988. ITU joined ISO and IEC for the Standards Day message in 1993.

Standards and tests go hand in hand. They are key to the development of the global market. The three principal organisations responsible for developing international technical standards in their joint World Standards Day 2002 message focused on the theme of "One standard, one test-accepted everywhere."

More and more emphasis has been placed over the last several years on the mechanisms for assessment of conformity to standards. There are a variety of approaches specific to a particular industry sector in a highly decentralised aid. The number of sectoral local certification and accreditation programmes is proliferating. The IEC system for conformity testing for safety of electrical equipment and the IEC quality assessment system for electronic components seek to reduce the number of duplicate tests and certifications around the world.

The purpose of this year's theme is thus to lay the foundations which the "1/1/1 Dream" (thus the slogan One standard, one test accepted everywhere) needs in order to get built. To enter into new markets, to attract and keep customers, the providers of goods and services have to consider quality and productivity as strategic necessities. Standardisation, metrology, testing, conformity certification are among the key instruments they can use to reach their objectives. International Standards can provide the basis for conformity assessment and certification recognised throughout the world.
The ultimate goal is surely to arrive at one standard and one conformity assessment procedure recognised by all.

Once these standards are broadly accepted at the international level, tests then verify whether these standards can be reliably met over time. These tests, otherwise known as conformity assessment procedures, refer to the varied activities involved in assuring that products, processes or systems comply with regulations or voluntary standards. Together, standards and their accompanying tests act as a common confidence-building foundation for exchanging goods and services between buyers and sellers in the global market. Conformity assessment works as a valid means to verify claims about quality, performance, and other parameters and as appropriate mechanisms to help ensure consumer confidence.

The combination of standards and conformity assessment serve the market by helping to lower technical barriers to trade-which results in lower manufacturing costs-and to raise the level of confidence between buyers and sellers. Relevant international conformity assessment mechanisms, standards, guides and recommendations could also help to underpin Mutual Recognition Agreements at different levels.

For international standards to make a maximum contribution to achieving the objective of facilitating trade, it is important that all countries participate in developing and adopting them. In this way the development of single standards and tests can reflect the diversity of opinion in the global market, and encourage market development without stiffing innovation.

Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) is the national body. Since Nepal became an ISO member in 1989, it has been celebrating World Standards Day with various programmes. Since its inception in 2033 B.S. NBSM has been engaged in formulating Nepal standards laying down variety parameters for the production of goods in the country. These standards are prepared by the technical committee represented by divers interest groups including scientists, technologists, manufacturers and purchasers concerning government agencies and consumers.

Standards prepared by the technical committee are then approved by the Nepal Council for Standards. The Bureau has published over 615 Nepal Standards covering product specification, method of test, code of practice, sampling method, terminology, management system, etc.
For the implementation of Nepal Standards, the Bureau is operating a quality certification marks scheme which is also called Nepal Standards Mark scheme. Under the scheme interested manufacturers are granted license to mark their product with NS mark after the Bureau is satisfied.
Over 30 products are covered under Bureau certification marks scheme through 1O4 licenses. Out of 615 voluntary Nepal Standards concerning health and safety of people, only six of them have been made mandatory. They are deformed steel bar, ordinary Portland cement, mineral water, code practice of LPG cylinder, hand made wool for carpet and corrugated sheet for house roofing.
Quality today is stressed as a strategy to compete in the national and international market therefore NBSM has adopted series of ISO 9000 quality management system standards which have become the minimum quality standards that companies should acquire in order to prove their commitment to quality.

Advantage

The advantage of the "One standard, one test-accepted everywhere" is that the existence of one internationally accepted standard and one internationally accepted test helps foster the development of a global market for foods or services. In so doing, it makes products and services acceptable in all countries.

Wake Up, Consumers!

By Ambar Mainali

OWNERS of both private and public vehicles were hit hard by the recent three-day strike. Just as they were waiting impatiently to shed their anguish, the news about the preparations being made to hike the price of petrol and kerosene gave one more blow to the township of comfort seekers. Those moving around on a shoestring budget got the shock of their lives when they came to know that petrol dealers had folded their arms. The exasperation of the consumers worsened further on being given only a litre or two of petrol after a long wait in serpentine queues. Interestingly retailers spared some ink and paper to put up the notice " No Petrol and No Kerosene."

They must have felt that their duty was over after scribbling the two words in bold letters. But the story does not end here. The shortage came after the government announced that it was mulling to hike the price of POL products as the Nepal Oil Corporation was facing a huge loss for selling the products at a subsidised price.

We all know that those running a business do not have empty tanks. All pumps did have petrol in their tanks at the time when the word about the probable hike started making its rounds. To the dismay of the consumers the "No Petrol" sign appeared all over the town right after the announcement. The consumers were moving around the town puffing and panting in search of petrol. On the second day of the artificial scarcity that hit the market, the government was sensible enough to take action against 17 retailers of petrol, kerosene and LP gas in the Kathmandu Valley. It has promised to intensify the campaign across the nation, which is a positive step to give panacea to the consumers.

The artificial scarcity of kerosene comes as a curse to the old town folks who are separated from their children. The old people who use kerosene to cook meals are too weak to queue up for long hours and you can well imagine what their conditions would be like sleeping with an empty stomach.
It can be well understood that no company, be it private or government owned can afford to incur losses on the sales of commodities. There are times when the government is compelled to hike the price of commodities that are imported and have witnessed a price rise in the international market. It would be wise though to take such decisions promptly without disclosing it to the public beforehand. The failure on the part of the government to make its decision public without sparing a moment has a negative impact on the consumers who are bound to experience an artificial shortage in the absence of effective monitoring of the stocks.

Sad to say that the artificial scarcity of POL products has come about immediately after the government announced a relief package and formed teams to carry out effective monitoring of the services being given out to the people. Not to blame the government alone, the consumers in Nepal are amazingly indifferent. They never bother to ask why the prices of commodities have been raised and why they are troubled with the artificial scarcity of commodities created once in a while. The government at one point of time was acting tough with the local operators of cable television for not acquiring the license and for using the government poles to spread the cable lines. The hue and cry did not last long. No action was taken against these local cable operators who have been hiking the charge for giving out cable lines. Surprisingly none of the consumers who have been using the facilities have protested so far. Unless they start to speak up for their rights, they will continue to be burdened with bills having multiple digits.