Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka

College Development Cell

The College Development Council of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka has embarked on a mission to document, disseminate and promote quality practices in academic domain in the University.

Quality Network:

In this quest, we propose to establish a Quality Network in the University, with the Quality assurance Hub at the University and Institutional Quality Nodes in every affiliated institution. This network will be dynamic and adaptive to the emerging challenges in academic governance so as to develop sustainable resilience of futuristic educational ecosystem. This network is expected to be a vibrant and self-growing organisation that will be responsive to the ground realities and respond to provide an appropriate and feasible outcome.

The Roadmap for Establishing the Quality Network is provided as follows:
Introduction:

There is a paradigm shift n the health seeking behaviours of populations and compulsions on healthcare systems to respond to these aspirations in the recent times. This is necessitated because of continuously changing pattern of lifestyle, technological and epistemological advances in the context of healthcare and greater dissemination of health related information in the society.

In such a transformative situation, it is the responsibility of planners of healthcare education to measure up to the needs and aspirations of people and evolve viable healthcare delivery models. This requires that the universities – especially those who are offering courses in healthcare domain – respond positively and redesign their performance. Such a situation calls for closer look at models that have been tested and found effective in other but similar service delivery situations. For example, Kaizen, Benchmarking, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management that are reflected in quality benchmarks represented by organisations like Toyota, Motorola, Baldridge Foundation, etc. In this context, it makes a good case to scan for such models of performance excellence, so that the academic outputs of the universities reflect the futuristic practices in healthcare.

Need for Quality Assurance in University System:

Quality Assurance process is not only important to improve service delivery, but also for determining whether services are making a difference. The road to excellence can be a difficult one, as educational organisations can tend to resist change and self-examination. The key to change lies not only in developing a meaningful and effective quality assurance process that is directly linked into process as well as results, but also to have the active participation of all stakeholders.

Therefore, the purpose of Quality Assurance Process is to provide a means to evaluate appropriateness and efficiency of services by ensuring delivery of high quality services. It is to provide a means to identify and resolve problems in order to pursue continuous quality improvement. Quality Assurance provides a means for dissemination of information regarding the quality of services and the effort and practices the university uses to ensure that quality.

Procedure for Realising Quality Goals:

Developing a quality assurance plan is a process that involves representatives of the major stakeholders in the university. The final plan must include both administrative and academic areas and standardised tools that can be utilised to audit activities annually and on an ongoing basis. A good plan must incorporate the university’s vision, mission, objectives of quality assurance activity, scope of the various services and outcome monitors, requirements of regulatory bodies, administrative procedures, ways and means of disseminating quality assurance information and method of evaluating the quality assurance activities.

Moving any university towards valuing self-examination and change can be daunting and sometimes even perceived as threatening. To be effective, the plan document requires ownership at all levels. One of the most critical components for developing that sense of ownership and empowerment is participation. Having students, staff, administrators, and university to actively involve in this process can make it less threatening and more welcoming.

To enable a qualitative transformation in RGUHS, the Quality Assurance Cell of RGUHS proposes an initiative to establish Quality Network of affiliated institutions.