SAQS in Perspective
AMDISA has evolved the SAQS, embodying a professional approach and a South Asian perspective. This process began with a national workshop of Deans and Directors of Management Schools, coordinated by AMDISA's Founder - President Dr Dharni P. Sinha in June, 2000. The workshop deliberations concluded that there is a need to develop such a professional system independent of government agencies, and outlined the broad approaches toward that end. Since then, twelve more national and regional workshops have been organized.
Many of these involved extensive interactions with Deans and Directors from the South Asian Management Schools, and also with representatives of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International, and the national management associations in South Asia. AMDISA also received financial support from EFMD during 2004-2006 for developing SAQS.
Briefly, SAQS has emerged as a system which provides a quality assurance and accreditation framework based on regional and international experiences and perspectives. It uses a set of criteria developed from business and management schools of high national and international standing. Its policy is determined by a broad- based SAQS Council. The process is managed by the SAQS Committee. The major inputs for the quality assurance and accreditation process are generated by the management school found eligible for SAQS, through its Self-Assessment Report. This is followed by the visit of the international SAQS Peer Review Team/Committee to the school. Based on the Peer Review Report and Recommendations, the final school-wise decisions are made by the SAQS Accreditation Awarding Committee. All these SAQS forums comprise Chairman and Members who have a wide variety of experiences as senior academic administrators in the South Asian management community. AMDISA Secretariat coordinates SAQS activities.
The various workshops have also been utilized to train about 60 senior academic administrators from the region as Mentors and Peer Reviewers. Mentors guide the interested schools in developing their Self Assessment Reports. Peer Reviewers provide the Schools real added value by offering them the benefits of an international academic and strategic audit.
So far 31 schools have been granted Accreditation - 1 from Bangladesh, 26 from India and 4 from Pakistan; and 10 schools have been granted Re-Accreditation - 9 from India and 1 from Pakistan. More schools in the region are expected to seek the academic guidance and strategic audit provided by SAQS in the near future.
More information can be obtained from Executive Director at
AMDISA Secretariat, University of Hyderabad Campus,
Central University Post Office, Hyderabad - 500 046, Telangana, India.
Phone / Fax: +91-(0)40-2301 3346, Email: execdir.amdisa@gmail.com, execdir@amdisa.org.