Amidst the controversy surrounding the alleged bribery case for a better rating, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) on Saturday announced that its executive committee has decided to not only cancel the current process of accreditation of the university involved, but also debar the university for five years from applying for accreditation.
It has also decided to debar all the seven members of the peer team for lifetime in assessment or any other activities of NAAC with immediate effect. “In addition, it is decided to review the recent visits to HEIs (higher education institutions) by any of the seven members for which the results are not declared. The results of such HEIs will be withheld, and the Standing Committee of NAAC may critically review before declaring the results. In addition, it is decided that the visits of last one year will be carefully analysed and put up to EC for further necessary action,” said NAAC in a statement.
The case involves the CBI investigation into the alleged bribery of a NAAC team by the Guntur-based Koneru Lakshmaiah Educational Foundation (KLEF) in exchange for an A++ rating for its university.
The inspection committee also had Gayatri Devaraj of Davangere University and M. Hanumanthappa, Department of Computer Science, Bangalore University.
“As per the Dr. Radhakrishnan Committee recommendations, NAAC has proposed to launch the Basic (Binary) Accreditation in April/May 2025 followed by Maturity-based Graded Levels (MBGL). Special committees are working on the preparation of framework and methodology for MBGL. It is observed that NAAC’s Peer Review system has faced a challenging situation due to the recent CBI case. These are undesirable to the higher education system, and NAAC being a quality assurance agency is determined to eliminate such practices through definitive actions,” said NAAC, adding that it is planning to take additional steps to refine the system by eliminating the scope for unfair practices in the system.
This includes the implementation of the new frameworks along with use of advanced IT-based features to bring in objectivity in assessment and eliminate any unfair practices, it said.
Secondly, for the pending process of accreditation for some HEIs that summitted their applications as per the existing Revised Accreditation Framework (RAF), the NAAC has decided to allow these HEIs in Cycle 2 and above to retain the validity of their present grade until the Basic accreditation and MBGL are launched. They will then be able to choose between Basic or MBGL based on their preparedness.
“HEIs in Cycle 1 will be given the option to opt for Basic accreditation, and their previously paid fees, if any, may be adjusted against their future application. It was decided that if any of the HEIs in the above categories of 1 and 2 still wish to proceed with assessment as per the existing RAF, the peer team assessment will be carried out through an online mode for colleges and hybrid (with online and physical) mode in the case of universities. Detailed process and SoPs for online and hybrid visits will be shared with the HEIs,” NAAC said.
