This year saw a change of guard for the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of St. Joseph’s College of Commerce (Autonomous). Ms. Shivakami Rajan was appointed as the IQAC Coordinator. With the current accreditation of Grade A extended to be valid up to January 2020, the institution is meticulously preparing to submit the self- study report for the next accreditation. The year saw the planning of activities, and documentation with the NAAC objectives in consideration. The documentation of various activities of the college leading to quality improvement of institutional database was planned and IQAC acted as a nodal agency of the institution for coordinating Institutional data through MIS for the purpose of enhancing quality.

Major Initiatives of IQAC for the Academic Year 2018-19
● Formation of Student Quality Assurance Cell (SQAC)
SQAC is the student cell of IQAC consisting of one student from every class of each program that is offered by the college. It aims to ensure that every student is heard and there is active participation from students in quality related issues of teaching, learning and evaluation of each program. Students of SQAC actively take the initiative to participate in all IQAC activities and are the voice of IQAC amongst the student community of the College.

● Faculty Development Program-QIP- (Quality, Innovation and Prosperity) in Teaching Learning Process.
A two-day Faculty Development Program was conducted on 28th and 29th May, 2018 for the faculty members of the college. The resource person for day-1 of the program was Professor Dr. L. S.Ganesh (LSG), IIT Madras who spoke on ‘Setting Purpose: Motivation’. On the second day, Dr. K S Sameera Simha, Dean of Vijaya Teachers College & the Joint secretary of BHSHES, and Former Professor of Vijaya Teachers College, Bangalore delivered a session on - ‘Monitoring Progress towards Achieving Learning Objectives’ which was followed by ‘Setting Criteria for evaluation’. The day ended with a session on ‘Rubrics

Development- for Teaching and Learning’ with hands-on exercises initiated by the resource persons from Vijaya Teacher’s College.

● Faculty Development Program-Office Culture, Documentation andAudit
A Faculty Development Program was conducted on 30th May, 2018 for the administrative staff of the college. The resource persons for the program were Ms Prathiba Sudarshan, Director-Training of M/s.Winmark Solution, Bangalore and Dr. R.Krishna, Professor in Management & Group Director of Don Bosco Group of Institutions. The sessions were on Document Management System, Audit preparedness, Green Protocol, Office Culture and teambuilding.

● Faculty Development Program-Office Etiquettes for Support staff.
A Faculty Development Program was conducted on 31 st May 2018.The resource persons for this were Dr. R. Krishna, Professor in Management & Group Director of Don Bosco Group of Institutions and Ms. Prathiba Sudarshan, Director-Training of M/s.Winmark Solution, Bangalore.

● UGC Sponsored National Level IQAC Conference
IQAC organized a National Level Conference on “Quality Initiatives in Teaching, Learning and Evaluation Processes in Higher Educational Institutions” on 24th August 2018. Dr. D. Jeevan Kumar, consultant to the Karnataka Regional Branch of the Indian Institute of Public Administration, Bangalore and Trustee, Karnataka Chapter of the Sarvodaya Internal Trust was the keynote speaker.

Other resource people for the conference were Dr. Subramoniam Rangaswami, Professor of Eminence in Medical Education, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education & Research, Dr. Siddalingaswamy,(Coordinator, QAC, Office of the Commissioner of Collegiate Education, Government of Karnataka, Bangalore), Dr. Sakuntala Samuelson, (Principal, Surana College UG), Dr. G Uma (Associate Professor, Department Of Statistics, PSG College Of Arts and Science, Coimbatore) and Dr. Syed Wajeed (Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore). The conference received 42 papers.The Abstract proceedings was released during the inaugural programme.

● SQAC Workshops: Gemba Talks
The first GEMBA TALK Series “GEMBATALKS- VOLUME 1“was held on 12th September 2018 under the title ‘Pedagogical Mandates of Higher Educational Institutions’.

Topic Resource Person

Understanding the CBCS system	Ms. Muktha
The Intricacies of Credit System - How to Earn Extra Credits	Ms. Sneha Rai
Ice Breaking the Outcome Based Education System (OBE)-A Student’s Perspective	Dr. Himachalapathy
Wrap up and Course Feedback	Ms. Shivakami Rajan

● Staff Evaluation.
The Institution believes that staff evaluation is an important measure to assess the degree of excellence of the work performed by the faculty members. The evaluation process is conducted periodically and coordinated by IQAC. Staff Evaluations are reviewed by the Principal and the consolidated staff rating is discussed with the individual staff members by the Principal. The staff evaluation is centralized and is recorded online. The feedback facility has been introduced into the student login of the ERP systems which makes it easier for students to give their feedback on the various parameters of the Staff Performance Evaluation system. This year Staff Evaluation was conducted in both odd and even semester in the months of September 2018 and January 2019.

● Open House
The Open House Sessions were held on February 27, 2019 for all students and on February 28, 2019 exclusively for girl students in Loyola Hall. Students were encouraged to interact effectively and bring out their concerns and place their suggestions on the floor. Prioritizing the needs and concerns of the students. The proceedings of the Open House were documented and submitted to the management for review.

● Exit Interview
The IQAC conducted Exit Interviews in the first week of March, 2019 for the outgoing students. This feedback mechanism from the outgoing batches brings out their experiences while at SJCC. This is conducted with the idea of understanding student experiences and using that to bring in changes if required.

● Repository and Information Processing
IQAC in collaboration with the Total Quality Management Team in order to collect information on various parameters such as Teaching and Learning, Research and Professional Practices, Graduation Outcome, Outreach and Perception, Student Progression established the repository team this year. It comprises of three senior staff members who have efficiently captured all the data and information of the institution creating a robust documentation base.

● IQAC and RankingProcess
Ranking of Colleges today has become a rough guide for the reputation and quality of the Institutions for many. IQAC, considering the critically of such decisions, IQAC has facilitated the collection and presentation of data for the annual ranking of colleges for different Institutional Ranking bodies such as the NIRF, India Today, Week Magazines, Swachhta Rankings etc.

● Website updation.
All IQAC activities conducted during the year were regularly put on the website for give clear-cut clarity of objectives achieved.

● UGC and NAAC Mentorship Program.
Under the University Grants Commission (UGC)’s ‘Paramarsh’ scheme, SJCC has been invited to mentor neighboring institutions who do not have NAAC accreditation. SJCC has responded to this call with a list of institutions identified and a plan of action. UGC and NAAC have appreciated this and have given consent to SJCC to go ahead with this program.

● IQAC and Unnat Bharat Abhiyan- UBA Scheme.
Under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, village adoption program for HEIs, UGC invited all interested HEIs to register for this program. SJCC registered for this in September 2018 and has adopted five villages in the ANEKAL taluk.

● Intellectual Property Rights Workshop
In association with Ministry of Commerce and Industry Chair on Intellectual Property Rights, Centre for Intellectual Property Rights Research and Advocacy (CIPRA) and National Law School of India University, Bangalore, IQAC conducted a one day workshop on 20 th December 2019. Four sessions addressing issues of Patentability Criteria, Rights & Limitations of Patentee, Procedure for obtaining a Patent in India. Law related to Copyright Protection in India, Law related to Trademarks & Designs Protection and laws related to Geographical Indications were conducted were deliberated. The resource persons were from CIPRA. Dr. T. Ramakrishna was the keynote speaker, and the other resources persons were Mr. Vivek Anand Sagar, MHRD Chair on IPR, Mr Harikrishna S Holla an Advocate of IPR Property laws and Ms. Brinda K. Varma - an Advocate and Patent Attorney.

● Visit by CPE Advisory Committee of UGC
On 25th September 2018, a UGC constituted Advisory Committee visited the campus for verification of CPE funds and for sharing their expert opinion for the successful completion of the second phase of CPE. The Advisory committee members were:
Prof. R.K.Shukla,
Head, Department of Business & Commerce, PSS Central Institute
of Vocational Education, Shyamala Hills, Bhopal (MP)
Dr. (Ms.) Minu B Madlani,
Principal, K.P.B Hinduja College of Commerce, Mumbai – 400 004.


The Committee was extremely pleased and recorded a positive feedback and also recommended SJCC for “College of Excellence”(CE) status.