We all know that the National Assessment and Accreditation Council aka NAAC was founded with the aim of education quality enhancement. Among the various approaches followed by the council, the formation of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell or IQAC is becoming a hit recipe. With the high-quality sustenance measure, IQAC plays a significant role in higher education institutes. Let us find out what is IQAC and why it has gained ultimate significance in the NAAC accreditation process.

What is the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC)?

Internal Quality Assurance Cell or IQAC was established to assist educational institutes to improve their work strategies and reach out to desired learning outcomes and objectives. IQAC always initiates, plans, and supervises the several quality culture activities that are necessary to increase the quality of the education delivered in the institutes. This structure develops a system for consistent, conscious actions so that institutes can improve their academic and administrative performance. The cell acts as a participative and facilitative unit that works combined with faculty members to come up with the best strategies. 

It oversees the implementation of quality standards in teaching, learning, evaluation, and research. The cell promotes measures for institutional functioning on the quality enhancement front through the internalization of standard quality culture and best practices.

What is the role of the IQAC Coordinator?

IQAC coordinator may be a senior or competent person with respect to experience and exposure to quality aspects. It is a full-time responsibility to implement the visions of IQAC for the better evolvement of the institutes in the area of quality. 

So, here are the pre-defined roles of IQAC Coordinator:

• Enable and support quality-related activities in the institute.
• Ensure that the decisions of the IQAC committee have been well-executed.
• Help and organize the documentation of different programs for quality enhancement perspective.
• Ensure dissemination of data and information on different quality aspects. 

What are the functions of IQAC?

IQAC was established to build and ensure a quality culture at the institutional level. Along with this, IQAC is bound to perform several functions necessary for the growth of the institution. 

So, here are the top functions of IQAC:

• IQAC is responsible for developing and implementing quality benchmarks for various academic and non-academic activities of the institute.
• It helps in establishing a learner-centric environment to deliver quality education.
• IQAC acts as a nodal agency of the institute to address quality-related activities.
• IQAC promotes the organization of quality-themed workshops and seminars.
• Functions of IQAC include ensuring enhancement and coordination among various activities of the institute. 
• Internal Quality Assurance Cell is responsible for quality culture in the institute.
• It also prepares the Annual Quality Assurance Report according to standards and parameters set by the NAAC.
• IQAC arranges necessary arrangements for feedback response from the stakeholders- students, and parents related to quality-related institutional processes. 

What are the benefits of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell?

NAAC accreditation process reserves a special significance for IQAC due to its benefits. Here are some of them:

• With IQAC, Higher Education Institutes can improve functioning. And can make better decisions with a great level of transparency and assessment.
• IQAC enhances the clarity in the processes and implements some better practices. And enables the stakeholders to rethink and gives scope for improvement.
• Internal Quality Assurance Cell brings all departments together by eradicating the communication gap with constant assessment and feedback from the stakeholders.
• It also offers project-based and service-based learning to students so that they are aware of the practical situations.
• With a ‘think locally act globally’ mindset, IQAC offers a global platform to the students where they can showcase their skills and talent.

EdTech software companies have realized the importance of NAAC and IQAC in the overall learning process. So, to facilitate their consumers, they have modified their products such that they can aid in this complex process. They help institutes to consolidate, process, and secure data in accurate and predefined formats. Also, continuous evaluations are a part of the IQAC process. So it is also made easy with curriculum designing and exam management modules. 

Vidyalaya is a global leader in satisfying the Indian education fraternity with its ace products. It promotes effective and innovative teaching-learning practices, analyses and enhances student performance and several other ways to foster the process defined by the Internal Quality Assurance Cell. In-built features such as ease in preparing online documentation, protecting data privacy, efficient data management, and compliance-proof MIS reports make the products offered by Vidyalaya more apt and competent. Improve the quality factor of your institute with the Internal Quality Assurance Cell and let Vidyalaya be your technical partner!