2023, Vol. 5, Issue 5, Part A

The higher education is not in isolation. In the context of globalization, the institutions and the HE agencies realized the need for maintaining the quality and improve the status of existing education programs. Increased competition among the institutions and entry of foreign universities in to India has resulted in innovative marketing strategies for recruitment of students. They also design and offer variety of courses to suit to precise needs of the employers. They also provide all types of facilities to the learners to enable them to have best possible education. All these efforts are being made to train/educate the learners and make them most excellent product who are more in demand. The institutions have become dynamic in their approach and are looking for new and innovative methods to impart quality education. India has taken up the quality assurance and accreditation as means for reforming and upgrading standards in Indian system of education. Quality assurance in higher education, in general, and in the open and learning system, in particular is the latest trend in the field of educational development. During the last three decades, there, has been a rapid development of the Open and Distance Learning system. In the recent years, its level of achievement has come under tremendous pressure because of the growing demands for its credibility and quality in the ambitious competitive provision of education programmes. It is, therefore, timely that the learning/teaching process in the ODL System should be reviewed. Any distance teaching institution whether correspondence or open learning, stands or falls by the quality of its learning/teaching process both in terms of its contents and its subsequent academic support. For this, quality assurance is the fundamental necessity for its survival.

The paper is mainly discussing on what quality means and what quality assurance and quality sustenance in distance education. Paper highlights on quality assurance in distance learning, particularly in library services for distance learners. This paper concludes by touching the importance of accreditation committee for quality in distance education system. In any quality assurance and sustenance practice warrants the mentality of acceptance of lapse if any finds in the system. At the end suggestions given to enhance the performance of the library services to distance learners in Open and Distance Learning system.