Unified accreditation body proposed for all higher education institutes

New Delhi: A government panel has recommended a new unified accreditation system for all the higher education institutes in the country including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The report was submitted by Dr K Radhakrishnan, the chairman of the standing committee of the IIT Council.

Currently, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is the main accreditation body for the higher education institutes in the country. The National Board of Accreditation of the AICTE looks into engineering, management, architecture and pharmacy courses.

The IITs do not come under the purview of both these accrediting systems; instead, they have their own internal auditing systems.

The latest report suggests that the IITs should switch to the unified accreditation system as per the New Education Policy. This was discussed at the IIT Council meeting that was held last month. The Council will take a final decision after seeking opinions from the IITs.

The institutes have been advised to switch to the latest accreditation system within December 31.

Other recommendations
Instead of the existing NAAC accreditation system that gives A++, A+, A up to D grades for the institutes, the committee recommends two categories of accreditation. So, there would institutes with accreditation and the ones without accreditation.

The report says that a third category could be created for the institutes that have fulfilled all the guidelines and are awaiting accreditation. Besides, mentoring system too could be envisaged for providing proper guidelines for below par institutes.

Instead of direct inspect, the committee recommends data collection using modern technology. Complaints are rife that direct inspections are often biased.

The accreditation process should be done once in three years. Institutes that were established long ago and the new ones should be considered separately.