In a sweeping clean-up following a corruption scandal, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has removed more than 1,200 assessors from its roster, constituting over 20 per cent of its evaluator pool, as reported by the Hindustan Times.
This action was taken on the advice of a 10-member expert panel formed to review the credibility of assessors, said NAAC Executive Committee Chairperson Anil Sahasrabudhe on Tuesday, April 8.
The move comes in the wake of a high-profile corruption case involving the alleged manipulation of accreditation scores in exchange for bribes.
In February, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested seven members of NAAC’s peer review team and three officials from the Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation (KLEF), Andhra Pradesh.
The arrests were linked to claims that KLEF sought to secure an A++ rating, NAAC's highest, through illicit payments.
However, even before the bribery case made headlines, NAAC had already removed around 800 assessors due to inconsistencies in evaluations, breach of guidelines, and feedback from institutions. At the time, the total number of assessors stood at about 6,100.
The recent round of removals brings the figure down to 4,131, with plans underway to induct 100 new assessors soon.
“These 1,233 assessors were removed based on discrepancies in assessments, collegial feedback, and anomalies observed in their past evaluation reports,” Sahasrabudhe explained.
He also clarified that the seven assessors arrested by the CBI had not conducted inspections together, or even in pairs, for over a year before the alleged incident, added Hindustan Times.
“In fact, the main accused had not undertaken any campus visit in the past 18 months,” he said, disputing suggestions of coordinated wrongdoing.
Over 400 colleges reassessed
Still, the scandal prompted a deeper probe.
NAAC officials undertook a review of nearly 400 colleges and universities, including public institutions, after receiving complaints about suspiciously high scores. Several cases showed grade inflation, abrupt spikes in first-time ratings, and gaps of over 30 per cent between the Data Validation and Verification (DVV) and Peer Team Visit (PTV) findings.
Grades were revised downward in more than half of the reviewed cases.
The NAAC accreditation process evaluates institutions based on a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) ranging from 1.51 to 4.00, assigning grades from A++ to C for a five-year period. A D grade indicates the institution has not been accredited.
Ratings influence autonomy, academic flexibility, eligibility for online programs, and public perception.
Major changes ahead
With credibility concerns looming large, the council is now pushing ahead with a major reform.
Two new accreditation models are in the works: a Binary or Basic Accreditation framework and a Maturity-Based Graded Levels (MBGL) model. The binary system will categorise institutions as “accredited” or “not accredited” based on 50+ minimum parameters.
Institutions that pass the basic criteria will then be assessed under the MBGL framework, which will rank them on a scale from Level 1 to Level 5 based on sustained improvements.
“We aim to bring every college in the country under the accreditation net within the next five years,” Sahasrabudhe said.
He added that both frameworks are nearly ready and will be launched simultaneously to ensure transparency and rigour in institutional assessments.
