National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC)

2023 MAR 13

Preliminary   > Social Justice   >   Education   >   Higher education

Why in news?

  • The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has been reeling under allegations of irregularities in its functioning. Former chairperson of NAAC's executive committee resigned after alleging that malpractices were leading to questionable grades being awarded to some institutions.

What is NAAC?

  • NAAC is an autonomous body under the University Grants Commission (UGC).
  • It assesses and certifies Higher Education Institutions(HEIs) with gradings as part of accreditation.
  • The ratings of institutions range from A++ to C. If an institution is graded D, it means it is not accredited.
  • As of January 2023, out of the 1,113 universities and 43,796 colleges in the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), 2020-2021, only 418 universities and 9,062 colleges were NAAC-accredited.

Can all higher educational institutes apply for accreditation?

  • Under the rules, only higher education institutions that are at least six years old, or from where at least two batches of students have graduated, can apply.
  • The accreditation is valid for five years.
  • Aspiring institutes need to be recognised by the UGC and have regular students enrolled in their full-time teaching and research programmes.

How is the accreditation process carried out?

  • The current accreditation approach has been described as “input-based”. In other words, NAAC relies heavily on self-assessment reports of applicant institutions.
  • The first step has an applicant institution submitting a self-study report of information related to quantitative and qualitative metrics. The data is then validated by NAAC expert teams followed by peer team visits to the institutions.

What are the alternative accreditation approaches being explored by NAAC?

  • From the prevailing “input-based” approach, the NAAC plans to adopt an “outcome-based approach”.
  • This is because the current system is akin to accepting the claim of a PhD candidate that his thesis is of high quality.
  • On the other hand, in the outcome-based approach, NAAC can ask institutions to provide evidence such as samples of learning materials, continuous assessment tasks and final examinations to show they have outcomes of learning specified in the syllabus.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Consider the following statements:

1. The NAAC accreditation is valid for five years.

2. Only publicly funded educational institutes can apply for NAAC accreditation

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer