Search

Background: The higher education institutions will go a major innovation, reform, and change to achieve the goal of achieving quality, accreditation, and autonomy. Purpose: To evolve a holistic framework and strategies for achieving, quality, accreditation, and autonomy. Methods: The study is an exploratory qualitative study. The unstructured questionnaire is used for conducting the research which is responded to by 754 respondents working in higher and technical education institutions in the country. Result: The framework suggested in this study is having four rings. The innermost ring is a governing ring that is responsible for the professional governance of the institute with the help of the governing teams. The second ring is the capacity-building ring which is responsible for capacity building and capacity development and creating an innovative climate and culture. The third ring is a functional ring that is responsible for implementing the innovations, reforms, and change in the institute that are aligned to the provisions of the national education policy 2020. The fourth ring is the product and service ring and also the outermost ring which is responsible for the interface between the institution and the external environment. Conclusion: The reform-oriented institutions are provided strengths by these four rings to obtain accreditation and autonomy and sustain it. The strategies for each ring are suggested in the context of the National Education Policy 2020. It is suggested to implement the framework and strategies to effectively, efficiently, and productively implement the innovations in the institute.

A mentoring approach towards excellence is proposed in this paper. This approach should be followed to develop educational leaders and faculty members to prepare HEIs to build capacity and capability to implement the provisions of the national education policy (NEP) 2020. The approach includes designing the mentoring programme at the institute level, selection and orientation of mentors, selection and orientation of mentees, mentoring process, mentees and mentors' outcomes, and ultimate outcomes of the mentoring programme-academic, research, and excellence. The authors have noted recommendations to make the mentoring programme successful.

Research questions: What is the prevalence of morbidity of reproductive tract among women in a rural area of Rajasthan? Objectives: 1. To assess the load of reproductive morbidity among the rural women. 2. To study the association of potential risk factors with reproductive tract infection. Study design: Cross-sectional. Setting: A village of Bikaner (rural western Rajasthan). Participants: 1044 rural women aged 15-45. Study period: June 2000 to October 2000. Statistical analysis: Percentages and Chi square test. Results: The prevalence of self reported morbidity related to reproductive tracts was 31.8% and reproductive tract infections (RTIs) was 22.3%. Only 12.5% of symptomatic women consulted health personnel for their illness before this survey. Prevalence of RTIs was significantly associated with age, married life, gravida status, invasive contraceptives, gynaecological surgical interventions and type of family. Conclusion: There was a moderately high prevalence of self reported morbidity of reproductive tract, whereas, treatment seeking behavior was low. Many factors were found to be associated with RTIs.

Background: The provision of graded accreditation and autonomy of colleges has been made in the national education policy (NEP) 2020 which will be applicable for all types of higher education institutions in the country. The authors have noticed that there are very few diploma engineering programmes having accreditation and that too will expire for the majority of the programmes in June 2022. Purpose: To ascertain the awareness of faculty members on the accreditation process was the main purpose of the study. Apart from it, reasons for a very low number of programme accreditation were inferred and suggestions are made for the national board of accreditation (NBA), state government and polytechnics to improve and innovate the quality of diploma engineering programmes to satisfy the future needs of students, employers and society and implement the provisions of NEP 2020. Method: A descriptive research study was undertaken using the structured and semi-structured instrument designed by the researchers. The responses were collected from 525 principals, heads of departments and faculty members of the polytechnics of the country using Google Form. Results: It is found that on 95 parameters of the accreditation process the cumulative weighted mean level of awareness of faculty members is more than 60 percent. That clearly indicates that teachers are having in-depth awareness ofthe requirements of the accreditation process but they are achieving the minimum expectable level on various pre-qualifiers, criteria and sub-criteria because of various reasons. Conclusions: There is a number of other reasons which are abstracting the polytechnic and programmes to qualify for the accreditation. These reasons should be identified and addressed using well-designed quality improvement and innovation interventions at state, polytechnic and faculty members levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The higher education institutions will go a major innovation, reform, and change to achieve the goal of achieving quality, accreditation, and autonomy. Purpose: To evolve a holistic framework and strategies for achieving, quality, accreditation, and autonomy. Methods: The study is an exploratory qualitative study. The unstructured questionnaire is used for conducting the research which is responded to by 754 respondents working in higher and technical education institutions in the country. Result: The framework suggested in this study is having four rings. The innermost ring is a governing ring that is responsible for the professional governance of the institute with the help of the governing teams. The second ring is the capacity-building ring which is responsible for capacity building and capacity development and creating an innovative climate and culture. The third ring is a functional ring that is responsible for implementing the innovations, reforms, and change in the institute that are aligned to the provisions of the national education policy 2020. The fourth ring is the product and service ring and also the outermost ring which is responsible for the interface between the institution and the external environment. Conclusion: The reform-oriented institutions are provided strengths by these four rings to obtain accreditation and autonomy and sustain it. The strategies for each ring are suggested in the context of the National Education Policy 2020. It is suggested to implement the framework and strategies to effectively, efficiently, and productively implement the innovations in the institute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mentoring approach towards excellence is proposed in this paper. This approach should be followed to develop educational leaders and faculty members to prepare HEIs to build capacity and capability to implement the provisions of the national education policy (NEP) 2020. The approach includes designing the mentoring programme at the institute level, selection and orientation of mentors, selection and orientation of mentees, mentoring process, mentees and mentors' outcomes, and ultimate outcomes of the mentoring programme-academic, research, and excellence. The authors have noted recommendations to make the mentoring programme successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the thermal vibration analysis of double-layer graphene sheet embedded in polymer elastic medium, using the plate theory and nonlocal continuum mechanics for small scale effects. The graphene is modeled based on continuum plate theory and the axial stress caused by the thermal effects is also considered. Nonlocal governing equations of motion for this double-layer graphene sheet system are derived from the principle of virtual displacements. The closed form solution for thermal-vibration frequencies of a simply supported rectangular nanoplate has been obtained by using the Navier's method of solution. Numerical results obtained by the present theory are compared with available solutions in the literature and the molecular dynamics results. The influences of the small scale coefficient, the room or low temperature, the high temperature, the half wave number and the aspect ratio of nanoplate on the natural frequencies are considered and discussed in detail. The thermal vibration analysis of single- and double-layer graphene sheets are considered for the analysis. The mode shapes of the respective graphene system are also captured in this work. The present analysis results can be used for the design of the next generation of nanodevices that make use of the thermal vibration properties of the double-layer graphene system.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to understand the influence of cross-linking and the nature of binder on the combustion of polymer/AP propellants, combustion studies on polyester fuel binder, cross-linked with methyl-methacrylate, have been made. Compression strength, hardness and tensile properties of polymers and propellants have been measured. Thermal degradation data on polymers in presence of oxygen and the data on propellants obey the relation. where Kt is the rate constant which depend upon the extent of cross-linking and temperature. Interface reactions between oxidizer and binder and the concentration of carbon-carbon double bonds are important factors which affect the thermal degradation as well as burning rate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]