Leveraging ICT for Excellence in Higher Education Institutions using Standards and Criteria of Accreditation and Ranking

Knowledge and its application by the workforce is a critical factor for sustainable and economic developments. In order to gain competitive advantages, it is important for an organization to rely on manpower that has relevant skills and competencies to deliver expected results within stipulated time-frames and available resources. Higher Education (HE) plays a vital role in developing such competencies and moving industry-ready talent into a human resource. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a key enabler for functional efforts in the context, including quality assurance and enhancement in higher education. ICT is being used for improving the quality of education all over the world due to its numerous advantages. Our study is focused on unearthing the vital role of ICT for achieving excellence in higher education institutions (HEIs) using standards/criteria of various accreditation and ranking bodies. A survey was conducted using a Likert scale-based questionnaire including an open-ended question related to usage and importance of ICT for improving the quality of higher education. The results show that leveraging ICT can help higher education institutions (HEIs) to enhance overall quality through benchmarking institutional data, implementation and monitoring of best practices in pursuit of excellence.

Keywords: Academic activities, Accreditation, Alumni, DVV, Excellence, Government bodies, Higher Education, ICT, Inflibnet, Linkages, NAAC, Quality, Ranking, Satisfaction survey.