Unified Accreditation for Higher Institutions

In News: The central government report titled 'Transformative Reforms for Strengthening Periodic Assessment & Accreditation of All Higher Educational Institutions in India' has put forth several recommendations to reform the assessment & accreditation system of higher education institutions (HEI).

Highlights of the Report:

National Education Policy (NEP) envisages a completely new system of accreditation through National Accreditation Council (NAC) and envisions it as one of the four verticals of the proposed Higher Education Commission of India.
The report suggested a more simplified system, instead of the present 8-point grading system of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) to an adapted Binary Accreditation System viz. Accredited, Awaiting Accreditation and Not Accredited system.
The report suggested bringing the IITs under the umbrella of a unified accreditation process, transitioning to a binary accreditation system, focusing on outcomes, establishing a new body for data validation and verification.
IITs can utilise crowdsourcing for data verification, implement single-point data entry through APIs, impose penalties for incorrect submissions, and provide mentoring to institutions that fall below the set standards.
It recommended streamlining and synergizing the efforts of multiple accreditation agencies such as NAAC, the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), and the National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF).
The report noted that reforms have been proposed with an intent of creating a credible, objective, and rationalised system for approval, accreditation, and ranking of HEIs, with a verifiable and secured centralised database; technology-driven modern systems that could replace/minimise manual involvement.