National Assessment and Accreditation Council implements revised accreditation framework

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM :  In an effort to improve the quality of higher education system, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), the autonomous body which accredits higher education institutions in the country, has started implementing the revised accreditation framework to promote transparency in the assessment process. 

The NAAC, Bengaluru, released the new framework in July 2017.  However, the workshop on Monday emphasised the importance of the new framework. M S Shyamsundar, NAAC advisor, said the new framework would enhance the qualitative and quantitative parameters of the higher education system. The NAAC officers said it would be a paradigm shift of the higher education system once the framework is materialised. The officers also shared the concern of the lack of sufficient teaching staff in the country and the new guidelines would bring a drastic change in the system.

Major guidelines for universities 

• From qualitative peer judgement to data-based quantitative indicator evaluation with increased objectivity and transparency

• In terms of simplification of the process a drastic reduction in the number of questions, size of the report, visit days. 

• Boosting benchmarking as a quality improvement tool. This has been attempted through comparison of NAAC indicators with other international QA frameworks

• Introducing pre-qualifier for peer team visit, as 30 percent of system generated score

• Introducing System Generated Scores (SGS) with combination of online evaluation (about 70 percent) and peer judgment (about 30 percent)

• Introducing the element of third party validation of data

• Providing appropriate differences in the metrics, weightages and benchmarks to universities, autonomous colleges

• Revising several metrics to bring in an enhanced participation of students and alumni in the assessment process