The Internal Quality Assurance Cell(IQAC)of Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara University had organized a NAAC sponsored two day National Seminar on the theme 'Academic and Administrative Audits' on the 27thand 28th March 2017. A total number of 153delegates from within and outside the state participated in the seminar.

The Programme started with the formal inauguration of the program by the Chief Guest Dr. S. Chandrashekar Shetty, Chairman, Advisory Committee of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Public Health and Centre for Disease Control and former vice Chancellor, RGUHS and Sri Devraj Urs, University, Kolar who in his keynote address emphasized on Quality enhancement in higher education and highlighted on the process of academic and administrative Audits towards achieving self reliance and excellence in higher education.

Dr. B Suresh Honourable Vice-Chancellor of Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara University in his presidential remarks comprehensively highlighted on the Accreditation process in higher education and the auditing process in the higher education institutions which would lead into self-reliant institutes of excellence.

Picture 1:Inauguration of Two Days National Seminar on Academic & Administrative Audits. (From Left to Right) Dr. S. J. Nalini, Professor and Vice-principal, Faculty of Nursing, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai Dr. Prashanth Vishwanath, IQAC Co-ordinator, Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara University, Mysuru, Dr. B. Suresh, Vice-Chancellor, Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara University, Mysuru, Dr. S Chandrashekar Shetty, Chairman, Advisory Committee of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Public Health and Centre for Disease control and former Vice-Chancellor, RGUHS and Sri Devraj Urs, University, Kolar, Dr. P A Kushalappa, Director (Academics), Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara University, Dr. H Basavanagowdappa, Principal and Dean Faculty of Medical Sciences and Dr. G Parthasarthy, Principal and Dean Faculty of Pharmacy were present on the occasion

After the keynote address, Dr. S. Rangaswami, Former Vice-Chancellor, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai deliberated on the topic 'Academic & Administrative Audit -More than a Grading Tool'. He gave insights into the concepts and role of AAA process in quality sustenance and enhancement of HEIs –A motivating and mentoring tool, the Methodology of AAA: The seven steps, How to draw on the system and Benchmarking as a quality enhancement tool.

Followed by this session, Dr. S. J. Nalini, Professor, and Vice-principal, Faculty of Nursing, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai, highlighted the importance of Annual Quality Assurance Reports (AQAR's) and how to effectively use AQAR's for continuous quality evaluation of the institution. She discussed with examples of how AQAR's had been used as a quality enhancement tool at their institution. In the following session, a Panel Discussion was held on Ensuring Quality in Higher Education by prominent panelists. The panelists put forward their views on ways to ensure and sustain quality in higher education institutions.

In the post-lunch session, a panel discussion on Academic Audits -The Global scenario and where do we stand? Brought out important features of international audits and their salient features and how they differ from the national standards. The standards of various bodies about higher education in professional courses were discussed and this was followed by a discussion by the audience.

In the final session Dr. M. A. Shekar, Director, Karnataka Institute of Endocrinology & research, Bengaluru, discussed about the sustenance of an academic health of an institute by giving examples of health check-up packages and how it implies to academic health of and higher education institution and how the process of regular accreditations and audits improve the health of an institution

The day ended with 26 Poster presentations on the theme of 'Academic and Administrative Audits' being presented to the 3 judges and the audience. The posters presented various assessment models and their results on improving quality in higher educational institutions.

Day 2 (28th March 2017)

The second day started with a session on Benchmarks for assuring the quality at different levels of higher education delivered by Dr. S. P Thyagarajan, Professor of Eminence and Dean (Research) Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai who elaborated on the various mechanism for setting benchmarks and who also elaborated on various ranking systems and how much weights they give for different parameters and which parameters need higher benchmarking.

Picture 6:Dr. S. P Thyagarajan, Professor of Eminence and Dean (Research) Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai delivering a session on benchmarks for assuring quality in higher education

Following this session, Prof. S. N. Hegde, Former Vice-Chancellor, Mysore University spoke about challenges for an academic audit and how to overcome those challenges. He highlighted that the real challenge is always within the institution and if one overcomes that, then quality, if sustained perennially, could lead to excellence

This was followed by a session by Prof. Ilango Balakrishnan, Former Vice-Chancellor, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore who in his talk tried to bridge the gap in principles and practice of good governance. He gave examples of real case scenarios and explained how governance can handle such issues.

Following this there was a panel discussion on 'Seven criteria of NAAC -Is it sufficient'. The panelists put forth their views on the existing criteria and how it covered most of the aspects of higher education. There were views that it does not cover many aspects of health sciences universities and some points for suggestions to NAAC with regards to health sciences universities were made and it was decided to submit the same to the NAAC office. In the post-lunch session, there was an interesting panel discussion on stakeholder's expectations and perceptions in which administrators, faculty and students participated as stakeholders and brought out the expectations of various stakeholders concerning quality in higher education.

Picture 7:Panel Discussion on stakeholder's expectations & perceptions in the next session, Dr. K. P Arun, IQAC Co-ordinator of JSS College of Pharmacy, Ooty on effective documentation wherein it was emphasized on the key aspects of maintaining effective documentation with examples. In the final session, Dr. Sunil Kumar D, IQAC Co-ordinator of JSS Medical College discussed with examples the key aspect wise assessment indicators. He made the participants evaluate an institution using the seven criteria of NAAC with the set of indicators and gave an overview of the accreditation process.

The two-day program ended with a valedictory function which was presided by Dr. B. Manjunatha, Registrar, Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara University. He highlighted the importance of such seminars and how it could translate into a better understanding of the accreditation processes and how individual faculty could contribute towards improving the quality of the higher education institutions. Best Poster awards were distributed to three participants whose posters were adjudged the best posters among the 26 poster presentations. The program concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr. Prashant Vishwanath, IQAC Co-ordinator, Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara University.