New accreditation bodies to accredit educational institutes to be set up soon

To speed up the process of accreditation of educational institutions, the government will now allow various agencies both government and semi-government to accredit educational institutions in India. Currently, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) are responsible for the accreditation of educational institutes in India. For permitting the registration of assessment and accreditation agencies to accredit educational institutions, the centre will notify the University Grants Commission (UGC) (Recognition and Monitoring of Assessment and Accreditation Agencies) Regulations, 2018. A ‘Semi Government agency’ is an agency created by a Government agency having a majority stake in partnership with a private entity having at least five years of experience in the process of accreditation. According to a senior official from the HRD ministry, these regulations will be applicable for all the assessment and accreditation agencies (AAAs) that will come into effect following the notification of the regulation including the NAAC and NBA. Out of the total 40,000 colleges and 1,200 universities present in India, around 1,200 colleges and 59 universities have been accredited by NAAC. The academic and administrative standards followed by the educational institutions will be improved with the help of accreditation and will lead to monitoring the quality of courses offered to the students in a better way. In January, the rules were approved by UGC in a meeting and now these rules have also been given thumbs up by the Ministry of HRD and a regulation is expected to be notified by August. Another official from the HRD ministry said that

“The move is aimed at ending NAAC’s “monopoly” and ensuring transparency in the accreditation process”.

Dheeraj Sanghi, Professor, IIT-Kharagpur said that this is a welcome move but according to the proposed regulations the semi-government agencies will be allowed to accredit education institutes which will have a majority government stake. According to him, the government should have a minority stake in these semi-government agencies and more private players should be allowed.