Fear of poor grades, lack of faculty make instts shy away from NAAC

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:  05.05.2020

Possibility of poor grades is the reason behind non-participation of 22% of higher education institutions in the accreditation process of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) while 26% of institutions don’t apply as they lack permanent faculty and 5.5% for not having a permanent head of the institution.

These are some of the findings of the accreditation survey conducted by NAAC, under the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) in March. It said 72% of institutionsare currently in the process of improving their quality and resources to apply for NAAC accreditation.

The government rolled out the revised accreditation framework (RAF) in 2017, which came into effect in 2018 and has so far accredited 74 universities and1,485 colleges. According to HRD ministry sources, at present there are 600 unaccredited universities and 25,000 unaccredited colleges in the country.

Speaking to TOI, NAAC Director, Prof S C Sharma, said though the government has made accreditation mandatory, unless it is enforced it will take time for some institutions to come forward. “NAAC accreditation is a diagnostic tool. It helps institutions to understand themselves and improve. A total of 13,399 institutions have been accredited since its inception in 1994, including 1,559 under the RAF, 2017. A little bit of enforcement will act as a catalyst. The government had taken a good step by putting up State -Level Quality Assurance Cell (SLQAC). State-level incentive for accreditation will go a long way.”

On the importance of accreditation, he said it not only guides students in their decision on pursuance of higher education, “top universities abroad ask for the institute’s accreditation details”.

While launching RAF, NAAC had assured transparency and objectivity. NAAC has set the tone for digitised era of assessment and accreditation, wherein 70% weightage will be evaluated through ICT and 30% through peer team visits. Now it is planning to enhance its accreditation numbers to an average 2,500 HEIs in a year, from the existing 1,500. A big number of non-accredited colleges are government-run institutions or are in rural areas, which is now the thrust area for NAAC.

Less than 1% of the colleges managed the top grade of A++, while 66.4% of colleges were graded in between B++ and B. Among the universities, 6.5% were accorded A++ grade under the RAF, while 51.4% were graded between B++ and B grades.

“Under the RAF, grades are more objective and dataoriented unlike before. Earlier it was 100% peer team verification. It was not 100% objective .... If it is not mathematical, it becomes subjective. Now 70% is objective and 30% is subjective. If you don’t find the evidence as claimed by the institutions one cannot record it for assessment,” said Sharma.

“Now we want to adopt machine learning and artificial intelligence in accreditation to make things faster and take it to the next level. Also now NAAC’s mission is to handhold rural and government colleges,” he said.

The government rolled out the revised accreditation framework (RAF) in 2017 and has so far accredited 74 universities and 1,485 colleges. At present there are 600 unaccredited universities and 25,000 unaccredited colleges in the country