NAAC bribery case: What is NAAC, why have there been proposals to change accreditation process

Through a erstwhile lawman advisor astatine NAAC, a prof astatine Bangalore University, and an advisor astatine NAAC, KLEF bureau bearers sought the inclusion of “known members” successful the NAAC inspection team, and the names of squad members were revealed to the instauration earlier they were officially communicated by NAAC, the FIR alleges.

This is, however, not the archetypal clip that determination person been questions implicit alleged malpractices successful the NAAC grading process. The NAAC president discontinue successful 2023 citing specified issues.

What is the NAAC grading process? Why is it important?

NAAC is simply a assemblage acceptable up successful 1994 nether the University Grants Commission (UGC) — the UGC main heads its governing assembly — with the intent of evaluating the show of higher acquisition institutions, and providing accreditation. NAAC grades are wide regarded arsenic a marker of quality, with institutions prominently displaying them. According to UGC regulations, this is meant to “enable students and different stakeholders to marque informed choices”.

UGC regulations of 2012 made it mandatory for higher acquisition institutions to get accredited aft six years of functioning, oregon aft 2 batches person graduated. This means that for funds from the UGC, a higher acquisition instauration needs to beryllium accredited. These grades besides specifically substance successful definite scenarios — for instance, to use for autonomy, a assemblage needs to beryllium accredited with a minimum NAAC people of ‘A’.

Institutions are assessed connected parameters including infrastructure, teaching and evaluation, governance, and research. The process of appraisal involves the institute itself submitting a ‘self-study’ report, a ‘student restitution survey’ conducted by NAAC, and a ‘peer squad visit’. 

To represent these adjacent teams, NAAC invites registrations from professors crossed antithetic domains of expertise. NAAC officials said that from this database of experts from crossed the country, a computerised strategy selects members, depending connected their expertise, who volition signifier the squad that volition visit, and inspect the instauration and taxable its report. The strategy is meant to relation successful specified a mode that teams bash not comprise members who are from the State wherever the instauration is located, the authoritative said. 

It is 1 specified squad that KLEF bureau bearers allegedly tried to get “known members” into.  

What does the NAAC accreditation process effect in?

It ends with a NAAC people and accreditation — certification of prime provided by NAAC for a play of 5 years oregon 7 years successful the lawsuit of institutions that person had an ‘A’ people oregon higher successful erstwhile cycles, aft which they request to use again. 

KLEF archetypal secured a people A successful 2013, and an A++ successful 2018. It applied again successful February 2024, and was scheduled for a adjacent squad sojourn successful January this year.

Based connected the parameters they are assessed on, the instauration is fixed a cumulative people constituent mean (CGPA) corresponding to grades – an eight-point grading strategy ranging from the highest A++ to the lowest D. Anything from A++ to C means that the institute is accredited, portion a D means it is not.

KLEF was allegedly seeking an A++ grade, according to the CBI FIR.

What issues person been raised with this process successful the past?

Bhushan Patwardhan, erstwhile chairperson of NAAC’s enforcement committee, resigned from his station successful 2023, a small aft helium wrote to the UGC Chairman questioning the accreditation process.  

“Based connected my experience, assorted complaints from the stakeholders, and reappraisal committee reports, I had expressed my apprehensions earlier astir the anticipation of vested interests, malpractices, and nexus among the persons concerned, offering thereby a greenish corridor by presumably manipulating processes starring to the awarding of questionable grades to immoderate HEIs [higher acquisition institutions],” helium wrote.

In 2022, a seven-member committee constituted by Patwardhan, and headed by Prof J P Singh Joorel, looked into the NAAC appraisal process. Its study said that “NAAC utilises a precise tiny excavation of experts for selecting the members of visiting teams, lone 20-30% assessors from the existing excavation are being utilised”, and that the process of selecting these experts “seems neither random nor sequential.” 

The study added that the excavation of experts generated by the strategy is forwarded to a ‘peer squad enactment committee’ which finalises the members. It had besides recommended reforms successful the online process flow, and IT infrastructure citing the anticipation of “challenges to information integrity.”

What changes person been projected to the NAAC grading system?

The National Education Policy 2020 envisions that “in the agelong run, accreditation volition go a binary process, arsenic per the extant planetary practice”.

A committee headed by erstwhile ISRO main K Radhakrishnan was constituted by the Ministry of Education successful November 2022, to urge measures to fortify the accreditation system. It suggested that the contiguous eight-point grading strategy modulation into a binary accreditation strategy — the instauration volition beryllium identified arsenic ‘accredited’, ‘awaiting accreditation’, oregon ‘not accredited.’

It besides suggests that accredited institutions beryllium “encouraged” to “raise their bar…from ‘Level 1’ to ‘Level 4’ Institutions of National Excellence, and past to ‘Level-5’ i.e. Institutions of Global Excellence for Multi-Disciplinary Research and Education.”

The NAAC authoritative said that this committee was constituted since determination were already apprehensions astir the existing process. In 2024, NAAC announced reforms successful the accreditation process successful enactment with the committee’s recommendations — binary accreditation alternatively of grades, on with a “maturity-based graded accreditation” (levels 1 to 5) for accredited institutions “to amended their quality”. Institutions tin germinate from Levels 1 to 4 arsenic “institutions of nationalist excellence”, and advancement to Level 5 arsenic “Institutions of Global Excellence for Multi-Disciplinary Research and Education”.

This strategy is inactive successful the process of being rolled retired with workshops having been held with stakeholders truthful far, the authoritative said. The binary strategy is expected to bash distant with the propulsion among institutions to get an A+ and advertise it, sources associated with NAAC said.

To minimise dependence connected carnal visits by the adept team, the committee had suggested “stakeholder-crowdsourcing…as a methodology for validation of information submitted by the institute” — feedback of stakeholders and crowdsourcing arsenic a mode of collecting information with information of faculty, students, alumni, parents, and adjacent groups.