How credible are ranking and accreditation system of Indian education institutes?

 

   “CBI NAAC bribery FIR names JNU and Bangalore University professors– Cash, laptops sought to rate Andra University” - reported Times of India on 04 February, 2025. Times of India reported that NAAC assessment team took bribes and granted inflated ratings.

   The highest grade in NAAC is A++ which is given to the institute that meets the highest standards. As per the FIR, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation (KLEF), a deemed to be university in Guntur, Andra Pradesh, was allegedly asked to pay a total of Rs. 1.8 crore to the seven-member inspection team in return for the A++ NAAC grade.

   The arrest of members from a NAAC peer inspection panel by the Central Bureau of Investigation has raised serious questions about the integrity of India’s accreditation system. 

    National Accreditation & Assessment Council (NAAC) was set up as an autonomous body in 1994 at Bangalore and is funded by the University Grant Commission (UGC). The prime objective of NAAC is to improve the education quality delivered by the higher educational institutes (HEIs) across the country. Though, the institutes are not legally required to undergo the assessment process, the UGC strongly encourages all HEIs to get NAAC accredited to maintain quality standards in education.

    As on January 16, 2025 NAAC has accredited 991 universities and 18,992 colleges out of 1113 universities and 43,796 colleges.

    NAAC assessment involves a self-assessment by the institution, followed by an external peer review. The peer review team visits the institute for assessment. The institution is assessed against a set of criteria (there are seven) and finally the grade is declared.

    Good NAAC grade will help the institute to get graded autonomy, enhanced research funding, starting of off-campus open programmes and foreign collaborations. Students get better placements and easier admissions abroad in reputed foreign universities.  The accredited institutions are also will be in a better position to charge astronomical fees for its courses / programmes.

    Because of several benefits that accrue to an educational institution, some institutions, with the connivance of the so-called consultants indulge in malpractices that would get them a superior grade. Many HEIs go overboard and brazenly indulge in unethical and often exaggerated presentation of data to somehow manage to score more in each metric of the NAAC assessment criteria. Many HEIs try their best to game the metrics system to score more. When the peer team visit is planned for the assessment, the HEIs will enter into clandestine backdoor negotiations with the NAAC officials / chairman of the assessment team and try to fix up a pliable assessment team. Though NAAC has a computerized process of selecting the auditors, somehow this process is subverted through re-generating a new list.

    The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had also raised serious concerns about NAAC’s auditor selection process, noting that assessment work was being assigned arbitrarily. A former NAAC Chairman commented that while some were given more NAAC audits and others were not. He further went on to say that the expected round-robin method was not followed, nor was there a clear policy governing how inspections were assigned. “Every time a list is regenerated, it goes against the laid down method,” he added.

     Professor Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman of NAAC’s executive committee agrees that there is corruption in the accreditation process. He admits that even with several safeguards, vulnerabilities still persist. When confronted, Prof. Ganesan Kannabiran, the NAAC Director said that the problem was about the integrity and honesty of the visiting inspectors.

    Due to the alleged bribe-for-grades scam, NAAC is planning to shift to a binary system, and a maturity-based system with different metrics for accreditation. This system involves grading a college ‘accredited or not’ without grades like A ++, A+ etc. The committee has also debarred offline, physical visits and will do everything online through validation of documents.

     Corruption in India has spread wide and deep in every institution and educational institutions are no exception. Almost every well intended government agency in India sooner or later succumbs to the cancer of corruption. As long as human element is involved in any stage of operation, unfortunately corruption starts breeding at some point of time.

     As I was also involved as the NAAC Coordinator in one of the management institutions for some years, I can say with certainty, that almost every institution that has been NAAC accredited, has paid bribe in some form or other to obtain a favorable grade. A fresh assessment of all the accredited institutions so far may be necessary to weed out the fraudulent ones.

Then how to bring in credibility and acceptable metrics for evaluating an educational institution?

     The only solution is the top management / promoters of the institution shall be committed to make their institution world-class without resorting to window dressing and corrupt practices. This may not happen in the foreseeable future, since education has lost its noble sheen and has become a business in India.

     The best accreditation is the feedback from the alumni and their level of success in their professional journey. Employers can also provide some useful insights by virtue of their interaction with their employees.

     As per the latest news, NAAC has cancelled physical visits and has shifted to e-inspections. It is also planning to introduce binary accreditation model with effect from April-May 2025. The new timeline will also see the introduction of maturity based graded levels (MBGL), a system designed to encourage institutions to enhance their academic and research capabilities.

  “Implementing these new frameworks – basic accreditation and MBGL – along with advanced IT based assessment features will not only enhance objectivity but eliminate unfair practices too,” says Prof. Anil Sahasrabudhe NAAC Executive Committee Chairman.  

    The ambitious plans are appreciated, but only time will tell if they can ever be successfully implemented (corruption free) in India where ironically people are spiritually oriented but become greedy with corrupt disposition.

The parents, students and other stakeholders are cautioned not to give too much importance to the so-called accreditation grades and do their own evaluation before taking the decision.

 

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