Societal Expectation And Institutional Accountability In Higher Education

Higher education institutions are vested with the responsibility of grooming a generation of youth through providing quality education and skills, matching the requirements of a harmonious, self-reliant and developed society, and values inclined to serve with selfless devotion in whatever capacity they assume and wherever they work. The society at large looks up to the institutions to address their needs through enhancing educational opportunity, maintaining quality, increasing employability, solving community-based problems, creating a pool of human resources, promoting inter-institutional collaborations and maintaining harmony with outer environment. In order to achieve this, institution formulate action plans for all the operational processes such as admission, teaching, placement, personality development, support services, social responsibility etc. through strategic planning. The perspective plan of the institution clearly spells out its accountability. Leadership is groomed both at student level and teacher level in academics, career, programme organization, sports and games and cultural activities through setting standards, measuring performance, ensuring discipline, character formation and personality building. Quality assurance mechanisms involve the stakeholders namely parents, students, institutions, industry and community to ensure satisfaction and compliance. Through objective criteria such as results and placement, outreach activities, events and programmes, feedback etc. the institution monitors to maintain accountability. This paper discusses the societal expectation and institutional accountability through a case study of Srinivas Institute of Management Studies (SIMS).