New assessment model of PCI to grade colleges into 4 categories

New assessment model of PCI to grade colleges into 4 categories 

The revised system will evaluate institutions on measurable outcomes such as student academic performance, quality of teaching 

Priyadarshini.Gupta@timesofindia.com 05.05.2025

Aiming at enhancing the credibility of pharmacy education in India and enabling aspirants to make informed choices during college admissions, the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), in collaboration with the Quality Council of India (QCI), has launched a new national-level assessment and rating framework for pharmacy institutes. 

Moving away from a traditional compliance-driven model, the new system adopts an outcome-oriented approach that evaluates institutions based on 11 parameters such as curriculum, practical/clinical experiences, teachinglearning environment, students’ admission, human resources, assessment policy, research output and impact, financial resource, community outreach programmes, quality assurance system and feedback and perception of stakeholders.

The new system will include both desktop-based evaluation as well as physical inspections of pharmacy colleges. Institutions will be categorised into four grades: A, B, C, and D, based on their overall performance across these parameters. 

With more than 3,000 pharmacy colleges nationwide, the physical inspections will begin from July-August 2025. The results from this assessment will reflect data from the academic year 2024-25 and are expected to be released for the 2025-26 academic cycle. 

Performing colleges 

The new system will ensure greater transparency, and student awareness in the sector. It will help both domestic and international students by offering a verified list of institutions. Montukumar Patel, president, PCI, says, “The idea is to assess educational institutions thoroughly — whether they are delivering quality education or not, and if teacher training and learning outcomes are being met or not. 

The new system will rank and rate institutions across the country from the best to the worst. This will help students make good decisions during admissions. Even foreign students who wish to study in India can apply accordingly. Previously, foreign students had to approach individual universities for admissions. However, as per the new UGC policy, India is supposed to reserve 25% of its seats in top institutions for foreign students. Hence, there was a need for a system to rank institutions in the pharmacy education too.” 

The new reform brings PCI closer to the accreditation practices followed by bodies such as the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) which is based on outcomes. Daksh Bhatia, professor, KIET School of Pharmacy, Ghaziabad, says, “Earlier, PCI assessment was based on compliance, focusing mainly on infrastructure, faculty count, and availability of equipment. In contrast, the new system evaluates institutions on measurable outcomes such as student academic performance, quality of teaching, research productivity, graduate employability, and higher education progression.” 

The parameter framework has been piloted in 1011 pharmacy institutions across the country. The pilot was being done to validate whether the parameters designed were effective and practical for institutions. The assessment system focuses on diploma and UG programmes but may extend to the PG level, later. Varinder S Kanwar, CEO, National Accreditation Board for Education and Training, QCI, says, “Until now, rankings were done at the institutional level. The assessment model, combining data analysis with field visits, will address discrepancies between reported data and on-the-ground realities. Unlike the previous systems that relied solely on documentation, we are now going for on-site verification as well. 

This will increase the credibility of the assessments.” Each assessment cycle will be followed by feedback reports, enabling institutions to focus on specific weak areas. “This categorisation is designed to be progressive which means institutions in lower categories will have the opportunity to improve their standings in the subsequent years,” he says.