NAAC asked to rework accreditation process for higher education institutes

NEW DELHI: To do away with "corruption" and subjectivity in assessment and grading of higher education institutions, the ministry of human resource development has asked for a complete overhaul of the accreditation process by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) from July 2017.

Following complaints of corruption by the council's peer team, the ministry asked NAAC to work towards bringing transparency, objectivity and technology into the grading system.

As per the new methodology, the peer team assessment of institutions will be given just 20 per cent weightage instead of the current 100 per cent in deciding the grade of an institution.

Moreover, no institution will know in advance which team will visit them and the accommodation and travel plans of the peer team visit will be outsourced.

Major (80 per cent) weightage of the grade will be decided based on technical and objective inputs via use of Information Communication and Technology (ICT). These and many more changes, said officials, are in the pipeline in the accreditation process of higher education institutions in order to bring in transparency, objectivity and technology in the assessment and grading.

"There have been complaints from institutions against the conduct of the assessors who are part of the peer team. Therefore, union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar has taken personal interest in qualitative improvement of the grading system," said a senior official.