How accreditation bodies evaluate Higher Education Institutes for Quality assurance

 Accreditation is a rigorous process under which Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) are evaluated if they meet pre-established standards of governing bodies. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and the University Grans Commission (UGC) have taken many initiatives time to time for the assessment of quality standards of HEIs. Subsequently, the National Policy on Education (1986) and Programme of Action (1992) recommended to establish an autonomous Accreditation and Assessment body for the maintenance and promotion of standards of Higher Education. In 1994 University Grants Commission (UGC) established an autonomous institution named National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) to evaluate and promote the quality in Higher Education. NAAC strives hard to undertake plans and activities for the accomplishment of its vision and mission to make quality, an Integrated element of Higher Education in India with major concern on prepare youth with high values and global competencies who can contribute to national and global development.

Benefits of Accreditation: Following are the important benefits of getting accredited:

• Accreditation pushes the Institution towards its SWOT analysis and its improvement.
• Accreditation builds the trust and accountability of Institutes among students, parents and society on quality education offered.
• Funding agencies are more interested to invest their financial resources in the progress of accredited institutes,
• Accreditation directs the Institutes for Continuous Quality Improvement.
  

Process of NAAC accreditation

The NAAC follows a combination of self and external quality measures for promotion and sustenance of quality parameters that include:

• First the HEIs willing for accreditation get themselves registered on the NAAC website
• Then Institutes are required to prepare and submit Institutional Information for Quality Assessment (IIQA) first and Self Study Report (SSR) on acceptance of IIQA
• Next step is to proceed to Student Satisfaction Survey (SSS) and Data Validation & Verification (DVV) process for thecalculation of Pre-qualifier Score
• Once all the reports and scores are there with NAAC then an on-site visit of peer team is done following the grading of Institute is declared.
  

Criteria for assessment:

Following seven criteria are considered as the basis of assessment procedures:

Curricular Aspects: NAAC Criterion I is all about the evaluation of curriculum features of Higher Education Institutes that comprise the planning, designing and implementation of curriculum of various programme and courses of HEIs. The Curricular Aspects are the backbone of Higher Education System. Though, the curriculum practices are different according to the academic and administrative levels of Institute i.e., whether the task has been performed by university, affiliated institute or autonomous institute. The key concern for evaluation deals with the assessment of curriculum enrichment of various programme and courses to check its relevant of national and global needs in terms of multi-skill development and academic flexibility. Curriculum updating is also judged by assessing the involvement of feedback procedures and stakeholders’ participation

Criterion I is assessed in the following Key areas:

• Curriculum design and development,
• Curriculum planning and implementation,
• Academic flexibility,
• Curriculum enrichment,
• Feedback system.
  

Teaching-learning & Evaluation: NAAC Criterion II is to gauge the efforts made by institution towards catering the needs of students belonging to different backgrounds, with its effective teaching-learning practices. The innovative teaching skills that promote students’ engagement with the help of interviews, focused group discussions, debates, projects, presentations, experiments and applications of technology resources are reviewed. As the teaching-learning are key concern hence the proficiency of faculty is analysed with the institutional efforts for their continuous faculty development.

Criterion II is assessed in the following Key areas:

• Student Enrolment and Profile
• Catering to Student Diversity
• Teaching-Learning Process
• Teacher Profile and Quality
• Evaluation Process and Reforms
• Student Performance and Learning Outcomes
• Student Satisfaction Survey
  

Research Consultancy and Extension: NAAC Criterion III pertains the information collected on the policies, practices and outcomes of the institution, with reference to research, innovations and extension. It is concerned with the fostering of research culture by undertaking research projects useful to the society and efforts made by institution for the same.

Criterion III is assessed in the following Key areas:

• Promotion of Research and Facilities
• Resource Mobilization for Research
• Innovation Ecosystem
• Research Publications and Awards
• Consultancy
• Extension Activities
  

Infrastructure and Learning resources: NAAC Criterion IV focusses on the resources available in an Institution and how are these deployed for quality sustenance in the academic programmes. I also seek information on the benefits students, teachers and other staff using these available facilities in the campus. Criterion IV is assessed in the following Key areas:

• Physical Facilities
• Library as a Learning Resource
• IT Infrastructure
• Maintenance of Campus Infrastructure
  

Student Support and Progression: NAAC Criterion V reviews the efforts made by an institution towards the holistic development of students to make them well capable to enter into the challenging world.  either to pursue Higher Education or to get rewarding profession after they leave the campus.

Criterion V is assessed in the following Key areas:

• Student Support
• Student Progression
• Student Participation and Activities
• Alumni Engagement
  

Governance Leadership and Engagement: NAAC Criterion VI pertains the operational policies and practices in the institution with respect to recruitment, training, performance appraisal of human resources and the effective financial management and overall leadership role.

Criterion VI is assessed in the following Key areas:

• Institutional Vision and Leadership
• Strategy Development and Deployment
• Faculty Empowerment Strategies
• Financial Management and Resource Mobilization
• Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS)
  

Institutional Values and Best Practices: NAAC Criterion VII An educational institute has its social responsibility to be solution giver for the emerging national and global challenges with its variety of programmes. Every institute is expected to implement unique practices towards the major domains such as gender equity, environmental consciousness and sustainability, inclusiveness and professional ethics. These academic and administrative practices to be impactful in these pressing issues are considered as best practices of the institute and these unique ways are reviewed during the accreditation process for the evaluation.

Criterion VII is assessed in the following Key areas:

• Institutional Values and Social Responsibilities
• Best Practices
• Institutional Distinctiveness
  

Following table represents the weightage given to the various Criteria.


Source: NAAC Website

(U) – applicable only for Universities and Autonomous Colleges (A) – applicable only forthe Affiliated / Constituent Colleges

Grading System of NAAC Accreditation:

CGPA	Letter Grade	Status
3.51- 4.00	A++	Accredited
3.26-3.50	A+	Accredited
3.01-3.25	A	Accredited
2.76-3.00	B++	Accredited
2.51-2.75	B+	Accredited
2.01-2.50	B	Accredited
1.51 – 2.00	C	Accredited
≤ 1.50	D	Not Accredited

                     Source: NAAC Grading

“A grade qualifier is kept for the institution on qualify for valid accreditation. In order to qualify for any Grade (C to A++) Institution needs to score at least 1.51 CGPA aggregated score (quantitative and qualitative) in each criterion”.  [from NAAC grading system].  Once the grade qualifier is finalized, accordingly the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of an institution is calculated by collating scores of the total, the scores obtained during Peer Team through on site visit and the scores computed using the Student Satisfaction Survey, on a five-point scale.

Accreditation Management System: iCloudEMS offers a a cloud-based accreditation management system designed to cater the groundwork needs of higher education institutions and helps them to generate, collect, organize and administrate all required data and reports in the predefined formats given by regulatory bodies such NAAC, NBA, ABET, NIRF etc. The academic leaders can get the following advantages with our Accreditation Management System that helps to save their time and efforts in performing tedious and repeated tasks with a couple of clicks only:

• We offer a centralized platform to enter and govern data on a with respect to criterion wise predefined Question set.
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• Our system supports Powerful reporting tools with standard formula set to generate analysis reports such as SER/SAR/AQAR/IQAC/ AACSB and many supporting reports in the course of accreditation assessments and qualification analysis.
• Our system is equipped with different templates that ease the bulk data uploading process of several years.
• The system also includes facility to use the prefilled data on portal during the process of the multiple years data collection.
• We empower Outcome based Education model in HEIs and centralizes the outcome-based data and reports of programmes and courses such as PO-CO mapping results, survey reports, rubrics data for calculation of direct and indirect attainment levels.
• We have an Expert Database Verification team for close analysis of the standards and the criteria to be validated upon.
• You can rapidly check the benchmarking standards and get a ready reckoner on the current status.
  

iCloudEMS supports Colleges and Universities to streamline the planning, assessing and analysing the several years of data and reports. We bring the organization under one roof to channelize the collective efforts of all stakeholders towards the achievement of their goals in the journey of accreditation.

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