Accreditation of Indian universities set to be compulsory
With the introduction of the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill in the Parliament recently, accreditation from independent agencies is all set to become mandatory for all universities and colleges.
As per a report published in The Times of India, academic programmes offered in colleges and varsities, including deemed universities, will also be evaluated through a uniform countrywide methodology.
Presently, course-based accreditation is done only for technical programmes by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). As per reports, currently only one-third of the country’s 420-odd universities and about one-fifth of around 20,000 colleges are accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) since it is a voluntary institutional exercise. Some of the accredited institutes include those whose five-year accreditation has expired and hence cannot lay claim to the rating anymore.
Hailing this bill, intellectuals say this bill would provide students authentic assessment of standards so that they can judge the credibility of information on academic quality and course material advertised by an institution.
Experts also believe that this transparent external review for the purpose of accreditation alone can provide quality in higher education.
Once the legislation is enacted, it will be compulsory for all existing colleges and universities (except medical) to apply for institutional as well as course-wise accreditation within three years. Existing medical institutions will need to apply for accreditation within five years.
Speaking to the media about the benefits of this legislation, S P Thyagarajan, former vice chancellor, University of Madras said, “"We need a national level standard methodology to have accreditation as a reliable parameter of quality. The proposed National Accreditation Regulatory Authority would help put in place such methodology."
Source Link: http://learnhub.com/news/1085-accreditation-of-indian-universities-set-to-be-compulsory
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