NAAC Director rejects claims of irregularities in functioning
Mar 10, 2023
New Delhi [India], March 10 : The Director of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) SC Sharma has rejected allegations of irregularities against the institution and called the entire working process as robust, transparent and automated.
Notably, NAAC, an autonomous body under the University Grants Commission (UGC), is facing allegations of irregularities regarding its operation.
But, SC Sharma in a statement said that the system cannot be compromised because the whole process is decentralised, transparent and accessible to the stakeholders through a user-friendly portal and dashboard at all stages of the assessment and accreditation process.
"The process of awarding grades to Higher Education Institutions has four fool-proof steps, one is submission of Peer Team Report along with grade and second is scrutiny by Standing Committee which is a Sub-Committee of Executive Committee. Third is declaration of results by NAAC and fourth is ratification of the results by Executive Committee. So, there is no possibility of manipulating the process leading to the awarding of grades," the NAAC Director said.
On March 5, the chairperson of NAAC's executive committee, Bhushan Patwardhan, resigned after repeatedly demanding an independent inquiry into the functioning of the council.
The NAAC, set up in 1994, is entrusted with assessing the quality of India's higher educational institutions. Following a multi-layered assessment process, it awards grades to colleges and universities. Its parameters include curriculum, faculty, infrastructure, research and financial well-being. The grades issued by NAAC range from A++ to C. If an institution is graded D, it means it is not accredited.
NAAC in a statement said that processes within NAAC are continuously being improved so that assessment and accreditation of educational intuitions are done transparently and professionally.
Director NAAC also clarified that the selection of assessors as Peer Team members for qualitative assessment are based on four criteria. First: types of HEIs to be accredited, Second: Types of programs and courses offered under each program by HEIs; Third: the constitution of Peer Team panel generated by the coordinators in the system ensuring the relevance of specialization of experts vis-a-vis HEIs; Fourth, acceptance of the invitation by the peer Team experts.
"The NAAC ensures that the Peer Team experts are not from the same state of HEIs. The NAAC also follows a due protocol for designating different portfolios of the Peer Team i.e. the Chairperson, Member Coordinator and Member(s)" he added.
NAAC further added that the experts have to give in writing a declaration on the code of conduct, ethical standards and no conflict of interest statement before proceeding on Peer Team visit. The pool of assessors involved in the accreditation process.
