The proposed binary accreditation system is set to revolutionise the assessment, accreditation and ranking of higher education institutions
Indian education system saw a revolutionary change with the arrival of New Education Policy 2020 also known as NEP 2020. While the previous education systems i.e. Sarva Shiksha were based on numbers, the Samagra Shiksha gave more attention to inclusivity and equitability. Along with it highlighted quality over quantity thus extending its support towards universal and holistic education. The concept of “Access, Equity, Quality, and Affordability & Accountability” under this was also applied as a pillar for NEP 2020 for implementation in higher educational institutions (HEIs).
The motto is to enhance the quality of education in HEIs and to compete Indian HEIs with the best institutions in the world. Based on this notion another transformative reform has been done by the Ministry of Education, Government of India through the formation of Dr. Radhakrishnan’s committee for revisiting the NAAC accreditation.
Dr. K. Radhakrishnan who is the Former Chairman of ISRO and Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the IIT Council proposed a new binary accreditation system for assessing HEIs where the assessment will be more technology-driven. It is a trust-based, transparent, and integrated ‘Unified Elicitation Tool’ where higher academic institutions will provide their information on the “One Nation One Data” platform. It will reduce the annual visits of the teams in HEIs and validation of the data will be transparent over the digital portal.
A system of high penalties is also proposed for those providing wrong information. Besides, two major features of this accreditation report were Binary Accreditation and Maturity-Based Graded Accreditation. While the Binary Accreditation will segregate the HEIs based on “Accredited” “Awaiting Accreditation” and “Not accredited”, the Maturity-Based Graded Accreditation will customise it in five different levels i.e. Level 1 to Level 5 where the HEIs have to cross each level to go up to Level 4 “Institutions of National Excellence” and Level 5 “Institutions of Global Excellence for Multi-Disciplinary Research and Education”. It will also create a roadmap for aligning ranking and accreditation bodies like NAAC, NBA, and NIRF by providing them with a centralised database.
The new accreditation system has suggested various categories of HEIs including Multi-disciplinary Education and Research-Intensive Institutions, Teaching-Intensive Institutions, Specialised Institutions, Vocational and Skill-Intensive Institutions, Community Engagement & Service related Institutions, Institutions of Rural & Remote location under its “one-size-fits-all model” where the levelling will be done on the orientation of the particular HEI. Further, the aim is to convert the present Score-based, Multiple Grade Accreditation with Binary Accreditation, Portal Self-Disclosure with Public Self-Disclosure, Single Accreditation institutions with Approved Accreditation institutions, One-Size-Fits-All Model with University-Type-Based process, and Input-Process-Limited-Outcome approach with Majorly Outcome-Based approach. All these actions will convert HEIs from a Generic policy to a Universal policy.
Since the Dr. Radhakrishnan Committee’s recommendations were put together to improve the calibre and reputation of Indian higher education institutions, they represent a paradigm shift in the accreditation process. The Committee while preparing the report has gone through numerous procedures from putting the suggested draft on the ‘MyGov’ portal and ‘MoE’ website for soliciting public opinion/stakeholder engagement. The workshop featured 34 panellists, more than 250 diverse HEIs and 950 participants from HEIs around the nation.
This report discusses establishing criteria and policies for these accrediting organisations, choosing specialists, creating self-assessment report formats, and growing the Accreditation Network to reach the HEIs located in rural areas, remote areas, tribal areas, and other smaller territories. To achieve its goal the report has also done a comparative analysis of the existing accreditation system and the visions of NEP 2020. It has also studied the best global practices of education to understand their model of education and to establish the Indian education system on the same platform.
Based on the suggestions received while formulating the draft, the committee has also classified the accreditation system into three different parameters. They are Pre-Accreditation, Accreditation Process, and Results and Post-Accreditation Incentives. The Pre-Accreditation includes processes like training the institutions, data collection, uploading the self-disclosure guidelines, etc, the Accreditation Process and Results as the name suggests focuses on validation and credit given to the HEI by the peer team. The Post-Accreditation Incentives are important for providing priority status to the institutional body. Care has been taken for step-by-step reforms to ensure the creditability of the system.
Thus, the vision is to implement the new accreditation policy proposed by Dr Radhakrishnan’s committee by December 2024. This new policy is aimed at creating futuristic universities for future generations. It will bring a transformative change in the HEI-Approval, Accreditation and Ranking System to make Bharat Vishwaguru.
(The writer is Vice-Chancellor at Central Tribal University of Andhra Pradesh; views are personal)
