The National Accreditation Assessment Council (NAAC)
has decided to reveal the benchmark scores that the colleges and
universities receive during their accreditation process to bring
transparency to the process. Earlier the benchmark scores were not
revealed to the Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs)
which did not give them the clarity to prepare a future roadmap to
bring the pre-requisite changes concerning the accreditation parameters
set by NAAC.
The NAAC decision will improve the
teaching-learning outcomes in the HEIs, as colleges and universities
would strive to bring in the much-needed creative element in their
teaching processes and designing of the curriculum.
Speaking to Education Times, Bhushan Patwardhan,
chairman, executive committee of NAAC, says, “We have decided to reveal
the benchmark scores to the colleges and universities in the spirit of
bringing transparency so that they are enabled to effectively work
towards enhancing the parameters on which they are assessed. Now HEIs
would exactly know on which parameters they need to improve and where
they have fared well. This entire process would help the HEIs to improve
critical outcomes which would make the educational ecosystem
qualitative. The HEIs would be motivated to bring in more innovation and
creative elements within the teaching-learning and designing of the
curriculum. Also, this will eradicate the practice of colleges hiring
agents who make dubious promises to enhance their NAAC grade”
“In
the first step, we would disclose the benchmark scores to the
affiliated colleges followed by autonomous colleges and universities,”
informs Patwardhan.
Anil Joseph Pinto, registrar, Christ University, Bangalore,
says, “It is a progressive decision by the NAAC as it would enable the
colleges and universities to understand the benchmarks clearly which
would help them to improve their teaching, research, students support
and administration. Working on these areas would help them get a better
NAAC Grade. For autonomous colleges and universities it would assist
them in designing their curriculum better. Even in the past, NAAC had
brought some transparency in the process of accrediting institutions by
displaying their records on its portal. Several colleges and
universities, both public and private, have been reportedly engaging
agents to get a higher NAAC grade as they did not know about the
benchmarks that have the highest weightage during the accreditation.”
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