A One-day Workshop on “Self-Assessment Report Writing” was organised by AMDISA on 7th March, 2018 at AMDISA Secretariat, Hyderabad. 23 participants from AMDISA member institutions participated in the Workshop. The Resource Persons for the workshop included Dr. A. H. Kalro, Former Director, IIM Kozhikode and Former Professor & Dean IIM Ahmedabad, Dr. M. Rammohan Rao, Former Dean, Professor Emeritus, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and Former Director, IIM Bengaluru, Dr. S. Padam, Former Dean of Studies, Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, Prof. Abdul Mannan, Chairman, University Grants Commission of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh and Mr. C. Ramakrishna, Executive Director, AMDISA. Two representatives from AMDISA SAQS Accredited institutions, namely, Prof. T. S. Rama Krishna Rao, Dean (Accreditations), The ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad and Dr. Anil Rao Paila, Sr. Dean & Director - Prin L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Bengaluru and President-AIMS were invited from the perspective of experience sharing.

The Workshop included four sessions, namely:
• Session-1 on “Accreditation Procedures”
• Session-2 on “Characteristics of a Good Self-Assessment Report”
• Session-3 on “Preparing Self-Assessment Report”
• Session-4 on “Writing the Self-Assessment Report: Panel Discussion”

The workshop highlighted that world over, the accepted measure of quality assurance in education is voluntary accreditation. Voluntary Accreditation is a concept of self-regulation which focuses on self-study and evaluation and on the continuing improvement of educational quality. It is both a process and a result. As a process, it is a form of peer review in which an association of schools and colleges establishes sets of criteria and procedures. As a result, it is a form of certification granted by a recognized and authorized accrediting agency

AMDISA launched the global benchmark quality assurance and accreditation system for Business Schools - SAQS. SAQS is the quality assurance scheme run by AMDISA as a service to the management education profession worldwide. SAQS emerged in an EFMD - AMDISA cooperation through a European Union funded Asia - Link project in 2003-04. It is inspired by EFMD’s EQUIS criteria guidelines.

It was highlighted that the Self-Assessment is a key part of the accreditation process. It has much wider significance for the School and for the accreditation team. It provides an opportunity for the School to gain greater ownership of the process and to improve its own understanding of the issues surrounding the development of the School as an international center for management education

The main aims of the Self-Assessment Report are to
(i) Provide an opportunity for the entire School to take stock of its situation;
(ii) Carry out a comprehensive strategic review;
(iii) Result in an unbiased and critical self-examination;
(iv) Provide a basis for the Peer Review; and
(v) Contribute to a better understanding of the nature of quality in management education.

The Self-Assessment Report (SAR) is a reflection on the continuous quality improvements of the institution; systematically reviews and assesses outcomes; identifies areas of strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and identifies the areas where strategies may need to be developed to improve or maintain quality and benchmarking.