SAQS - Role of Mentor
The Role of the Mentor will be as follows:
The Mentor is like a friend, philosopher and guide to the Internal Committee working on the Self-Assessment Report. The Mentor will be available for consultation until Self-Assessment Report is ready for submission. However, there is funding for only two formal visits to the School by the Mentor – one in the beginning and another when the Self-Assessment Report is ready for submission. SAQS will meet mentor’s travel expenses for the two formal visits to the School and pay per-diem for 2-3 days for each visit. The School would be expected to extend local hospitality to the Mentor in terms of boarding and lodging and airport pickup & drop. The Mentor in consultation with the institution will work out visit plan so that the time is used efficaciously. The Mentor, identified by SAQS and communicated to the School, will visit the School on invitation at mutually convenient dates.
During the first visit, the Mentor will brief the Director/Dean, Internal Committee and also the Faculty about SAQS Accreditation System in the context of other global accreditation systems. He/She will also explain the SAQS emphasis on the process by which a School institutionalizes admission, delivery and quality norms, and whether the School has well-defined systems and processes for its various activities from admission to placement, faculty recruitment to research and extension. It is not enough to catalogue achievements; it is important to spell out the underlying processes. The SAQS Quality Criteria Handbook (Booklet-II) gives relevant insights. The focus on systems and processes ensures that the School has graduated from entrepreneurial orientation. The second visit of the Mentor usually takes place after the School has prepared the draft report. Here, the Mentor will attempt to locate gaps and suggest additional work if any required to meet minimum stipulations of SAQS. It should however be known that the Mentor is not responsible for the ultimate quality of the Self-Assessment Report. The responsibility squarely lies on the Director/Dean of the School.
The Mentor is expected to send a report to SAQS on each of the visits. The job of the Mentor concludes once the Self-Assessment Report is submitted.