Bhubaneswar: A new binary accreditation system for colleges and universities across the country will be launched by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) in Sept, chairman of its executive committee, Anil D Sahasrabudhe, said here on Saturday.
“To make significant improvements in the quality of education, the govt-constituted Radhakrishnan committee on transformative reforms in accreditation has made several key recommendations.Binary accreditation framework is one of them,” said Sahasrabudhe, on the sidelines of a regional consultative workshop (eastern region) on binary accreditation organised at Utkal University here.

“We have been using a grading system for one decade for accreditation of colleges and universities. Institutions are receiving grades starting from C to A++ in the existing system. We found that many institutions are not taking part in the accreditation process with the apprehension that they may not get good grades,” said Sahasrabudhe.
He said there are around 1,200 universities in the country, of which about 65% do not take part in the accreditation process. “Similarly, there are around 50,000 affiliated colleges, but around 85% do not apply for accreditation. It is a matter of concern. Without accreditation, how can we find out their quality, strengths, weaknesses and performance?” he asked.
He said they want every higher education institute to be brought under the purview of accreditation. “It is our main target. The new system will not have a grading system like the existing one. Institutions will not feel scared to apply for it,” he added.
He also said peer teams will not visit the institutes as a part of assessment under the new system. “In the existing grading system, peer teams visit the colleges or universities to assess the self-study report sent by the institutes online. In the new system, we will manage it with the help of technology,” he added. Official sources said the proposed framework is expected to take less cycle time and cost lower. Data validation, which is largely quantitative, will be carried out by the peer institutes to ensure objectivity and correctness of assessment. The proposed new tentative framework has 10 attributes, including 59 metrics for universities, 56 for autonomous colleges and 46 for affiliated colleges.

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