Methodology to assess educational institutions

BANGALORE:The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is all set to launch a new methodology on April 1 for assessing and grading educational institutions. This was announced by NAAC Director Prof H A Ranganath at the 4th NAAC Accreditation Awards ceremony here on Sunday.“NAAC’s new methodology will be out on April 1. It has come after a gap of five years. Accreditation has become an important aspect in the growth of higher education in India. We at NAAC have worked hard to improve the quality of education,” said Prof Ranganath in his address.Speaking about the nuances of the new methodology, Prof Goverdhan Mehta, Chairperson, Executive Committee of NAAC, said that the guiding principle is to pay attention to the feedback that NAAC received in the last five years.“NAAC has visited close to 2000 institutions in the last five years. The process of framing the new methodology began six months ago with a core group and an external expert group,” said Prof Mehta. He said that NAAC wants to identify intangible qualities in institutions - those that cannot be measured.“The number of books in a library, students, faculty - these are measurable.This time, we will look at whether the programmes are gender neutral and how environmentally- friendly the campuses are,” he said.“The foundation of the new methodology is to inculcate internal quality. We do not want institutions to impress us during our visits.We want them to make a commitment towards quality,” he said.“The main thrust of the new methodology will be on research.We want to emphasise on the importance of research and innovation in institutions. While in colleges, we want a broader educational experience for students,” said Prof Mehta. “We have only fine-tuned the grading system, with focus on weightages on aspects such as grants to research faculty and others,” he further added.‘NAAC EXPECTS MORE FROM UGC’NAAC Director Prof H A Ranganath told the University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairperson Prof Ved Prakash that ‘a lot more was expected from UGC’ in terms of the work NAAC is doing. “NAAC has prescribed guidelines for all accredited institutions to maintain an Internal Quality Assurance Cell for students. UGC has come forward to help in this regard, but a lot more is expected from NAAC in terms of making this mandatory,” Prof Ranganath said.