Education Ministry plans major overhauls in accreditation system for HEIs

The Ministry of Education (MoE) on May 19, Friday, placed a draft report proposing major overhauls in the accreditation system for Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in the public domain. The report was formulated by an Overarching Committee constituted by MoE and chaired by Dr K Radhakrishnan, Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Council.

"We have uploaded the Report on the Transformative Reforms for Strengthening Periodic Assessment and Accreditation of HEIs on our website for public consultation. It will be in public domain from 19th May to 22nd June, 2023," said Professor Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman of NETF (National Educational Technology Forum) and one of the special invitees for consultation in the report.

One of the most significant suggestions made in the report is a more simplified Accredited, Awaiting Accreditation and Not Accredited system, instead of the current eight-point system followed by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). It may be noted that NAAC faced allegations of serious malpractice in the recent past.

The draft report also suggests reducing the re-accreditation period to three years, the creation of a Unified Elicitation Tool to collect data from HEIs for approval, accreditation and scoring/ranking purposes. "Significant penalty for wrong submissions" was also mentioned in the report.

The Overarching Committee has sought to categorise the HEIs into two groups based on orientation and vision and heritage and legacy. It also suggests that the public disclosure of relevant data by HEIs is ensured to "enhance overall process-credibility".