Associate Director – Research, Benchmarking & NAAC

Role Purpose

The Associate Director Research, Benchmarking & NAAC owns external intelligence, benchmarking, accreditation evidence architecture and institutional reputation support. The role maintains NAAC Criteria V/VI evidence at Department level, coordinates response readiness and builds benchmarking/case-study outputs. This is an accreditation, benchmarking and policy-research role

-not routine MIS or general communications.

Key Responsibilities

• Deliver the External Reputation Building Programme, including national student affairs forum identification, data packs, presentations and post-forum notes.

• Research forum audience and context for each national forum the attends; identify relevant CU data and draft presentation outlines.

• Maintain NAAC Criterion V and VI evidence repository at level on USADP and coordinate with campus NAAC leads.

• Conduct quarterly evidence-gap audit and report gaps to Deputy CoS; no unaddressed gap should remain beyond 30 days.

• Triage DVV queries for Criteria V and VI within 24 hours, assign named owners, track against the 15-working-day response deadline and compile sign-off package.

• Maintain a living benchmark file of 5-10 peer institutions covering student affairs governance, SSI, welfare infrastructure and co-curricular approaches.

• Produce an annual benchmarking comparison note by August each year and quarterly policy intelligence notes on student affairs research, UGC, NAAC and higher education policy developments.

• From Year 2, draft at least one CU DSA&A institutional case study per year for national forums and peer-reviewed platforms.

Qualification & Skills Required :

• Minimum 5 years in institutional research, IQAC/NAAC, academic quality assurance, higher education policy, benchmarking, accreditation support or equivalent, with evidence of research-quality documents.
• Master degree in Data Sciences, Business Analytics, Education, Public Policy, Management, Statistics, Economics, Quality Assurance or equivalent. PhD desirable. NAAC/IQAC certification or exposure preferred.
• NAAC Criteria V and VI evidence requirements; DVV query triage and response coordination; evidence repository architecture; quarterly evidence-gap audit; evidence indexing; benchmarking methodology; policy scanning; case-study development; research- quality report writing; data-pack preparation for external forums.
• Power BI; Advanced Excel; SQL basics; Python basics for data analysis; dashboard management; bibliographic/research search skills; accreditation documentation platforms; institutional reporting tools.
• Must write externally shareable benchmarking notes, policy intelligence notes and case- study drafts at publication standard. Evidence accuracy and source traceability are non- negotiable.
• Interview Assessment evidence checklist, gap-audit table, response timeline and one-page benchmarking approach for peer institutions.

Call at 8146651512