Mumbai: The controversial grading system for Indian higher education institutes (HEIS) has been abolished. National Assessment and Ac creditation Council (NAAC) announced this watershed de cision on Saturday Instead, it has opted for a binary accredi tation process, tagging uni versities and colleges as eit- her "accredited" or "still-to- be accredited". TOI had writ ten about this on Nov 12, 2022
The reforms will be rolled out in two stages. In the initial stage, binary accreditation. will be implemented within the next four months. Follo wing this, no new institute's applications will be accepted under the existing methodo logy. But institutions that ha ve already applied or apply within the next four months can choose between the cur rent and the new system.
NAAC has developed new structures to enhance assess
The new process is to implement binary accreditation', wherein institutions will simply be mentioned as 'accredited or not accredited
ment robustness in an effort to eliminate corruption, "un healthy practices", and a "ra ce" that pushes institutes to hire consultants.
Alongside binary accredi- tation, NAAC has introduced maturity-based graded accre ditation to encourage institu- tions to continuously impro- ve. This involves progressing from "level 1 to 4" as "Institu tions of National Excellen ce",and eventually to "levels" as "Institutions of Global Ex- cellence for Multi-Disciplina ry Research and Education". The grading levels will be en- forced by Dec 2024.
"The levelled accredita tion will enable Indian insti- tutions to significantly en hance their quality and global
positioning," said NAAC di rector Ganesan Kannabiran.
Former NAAC executive committee chairman Bhus han Patwardhan welcomed the decision, underscoring the need to eliminate competi- tiveness fuelled by grading discrepancies. "The race that one college was awarded an A++ and another an A+needs to go. That was not the purpo se of setting up NAAC any way" he said.
The One Nation One Data platform will consolidate data from HEls for various purpo ses such as approval, accredi- tation, and ranking, with an in-built design for collateral cross-checking to ensure data authenticity "The system shall be based on trust and da
ta driven, with minimal visits to an institution for verifica- tion." former AICTE chair- man Anil Sahasrabudhe said. Kannabiran explained that metrics for both binary and maturity-based graded accreditation will focus on outcomes and impact across institutes, rather than being input-centric. The new pro cess will accommodate the di- versity of HEIs, categorising them based on their vision and heritage, and providing tailored assessments.
Following extensive cove- rage by TOI on NAAC, Union education ministry had for med an overarching commit- tee in Nov 2022, chaired by for- mer Isro chairman K Radhak- rishnan, to propose transfor mative reforms for strengthening
assessment
and accreditation of HEIS The committee's recommen dations reflect in the redesig ned methodologies and for mats of data collection and va lidation, fostering a user-fri- endly accreditation system.
UGC chairman M Jaga- desh Kumar said: "The propo sed binary accreditation sy- stem, mirroring global best practices, encourages all in- stitutions to participate, foste ringa quality culture."