Quality assurance : What role for governments?

P R O F E S S O R N . V . V A R G H E S E

D I R E C T O R

C E N T R E F O R P O L I C Y R E S E A R C H I N H I G H E R

E D U C A T I O N ( C P R H E / N U E P A )

N E W D E L H I

Quality assurance : What role

for governments?

Massification of HE in India

 Indian HE system showed symptoms of revival in

the present century – fast expanding system

 India entered a stage of massification of HE in this

century

 The private sector contributes to more than 60 per

cent of the enrolment

 Massification of enrolment and diversification of

providers and multiplicity of regulators make quality

assurance a challenging task

Massification of HE in India

Category

Numbe

r 2013

Universities and

national institutions

412

Deemed universities

Private universities

201

Colleges

35,829

Enrolment in millions

29.6

GER (%)

21.1

Multiplicity of regulators

 University Grants Commission

 All India Council for Technical Education

 Distance Education Council

 Indian Council of Agricultural Research

 Bar Council of India

 National Council for Teacher Education

 Rehabilitation Council of India

 Medical Council of India, .Pharmacy Council of India

 Indian Nursing Council, Central Council of

Homeopathy

 Dental Council of India , Central Council of Indian

Medicine

The regulatory bodies have their own EQA agencies

Accreditation in India

 The regulatory bodies have their own accreditation

agencies

 The most common and widely relied on is NAAC

established by the UGC

 It is an autonomous body funded by the UGC

NAAC model of assessment : the four phases

 Nationally evolved criteria for assessment

 Self-study by the institution

 Peer team visit

 Final decision by the EC of NAAC

The new methodology introduced in 2007

 Separate steps for affiliated, constituent colleges and

universities and autonomous colleges

 The affiliated colleges should apply to seek the status of

“Institutional eligibility for quality assurance” (IEQA)

 After assessment NAAC decides on the IEQA status

within six months

 If the answer is no they re-apply after one year

 If the answer is yes, they follow the usual steps

Criteria for assessment : seven criteria

 Curricular aspects

 Teaching, learning and assessment

 Research, consultancy and evaluation

 Infrastructure and learning resources

 Student support and progression

 Governance and leadership

 Innovative practices

The accreditation process

 The institution prepares a self-study report

consisting of data and critical self-analysis

 The NAAC constitutes a peer team and visits the

institutions to ascertain the ‘’ pattern of evidences’’

for claims made in the self-study

 The scores are prepared by the team and sent

confidentially to NAAC

 The EC of NAAC decides the accreditation

NAAC grading of institutions

CGPA

Letter

grade

Performance

description

3.01

- 4.00 A

Very good

2.01

– 3.00 B

Good

1.51

– 2.00 C

Satisfactory

<1.50

Unsatisfactory

Validity of accreditation

 Accreditation is valid for 5 Years

 All accredited institutions have to apply for re-

accreditation after 5 years

 All accredited institutions should have established

Internal quality assurance cells ( IQAC)

 IQAC submits to NAAC an annual QA report - a self-

reviewed progress report

Status of accreditation

Total institutions

Universit

ies

Colleges

Accredited so far by

NAAC

193 5664

Accreditation valid

as of December

2014

111 3248

Institutions that

need to apply

for

reaccreditation

82 2416

Status of accreditation

 Only few institutions approach NAAC for accreditation

 Of the accredited institutions 49% are state universities,

41 % deemed to be universities, 7 % Central universities

and 3 % private universities

 The established universities do not take accreditation

seriously since it does not affect their status or funding

 The private universities are new and not yet time to get

accredited

Status of accreditation contd.

 Most institutions get an A or B.

 No institution gets C.

 Many institutions are getting a score of D

(unsatisfactory)

 There are no governmental pressure to provide

higher score for any university

Autonomy and the role of government

 NAAC was established as an autonomous body

 It is funded by the UGC which itself is autonomous

 The NAAC Governing Body is chaired by UGC

chairperson

 NAAC does not seem to be suffering from funding

difficulties

 The government intervention is rather limited

Autonomy and the role of government

 The autonomy enjoyed by the NAAC can also be partly

due to the fact that accreditation is taken lightly by many

 The interest in Accreditation is increasing due to RUSA (

Higher education enhancement programme)

 RUSA is a centrally sponsored programme

 It insists institutions to be accredited to get funds

 These efforts may be seen as incentives to approach

accreditation agencies

Challenges

 How to carry out accreditation if all institutions approach NAAC?

 Need to strengthen professional capacity of NAAC

 The need for regional and state level NAAC centres

 What incentives to be provided to bring more institutions under

accreditation

 Some state higher education councils (SHECs) have already shown

initiatives to accredit state level institutions

 Move from institutional to programme accreditation

 There is a need for more state intervention to encourage institutions

to accredit but at the same time the state need to keep away from

the process and decisions on accreditation