NAAC announces major revamp after CBI bribery scandal
After CBI raids last week blew holes in its rating system, exposing how officials were paid bribes to give favourable results, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) on Saturday announced a major revamp in its accreditation process.
Hyderabad:After CBI raids last week blew holes in its rating system, exposing how officials were paid bribes to give favourable results, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) on Saturday announced a major revamp in its accreditation process.
The council introduced basic (binary) accreditation for April-May 2025, followed by maturity-based graded levels (MBGL). This, post recommendations by the committee headed by Dr K. Radhakrishnan, former chairman of Isro, with special panels currently working on developing the framework and methodology.
The announcement comes in the wake of a recent CBI investigation that exposed serious irregularities in the NAAC peer review system, leading to the arrest of several NAAC personnel and officials of several universities nationwide.
Acknowledging the negative impact of such practices on higher education, the NAAC said its executive committee had taken strict action, cancelling the accreditation process for the university involved in the CBI case and barring it from applying for accreditation for the next five years.
Additionally, all seven members of the peer review team implicated in the case have been debarred for life from any NAAC-related assessment or activities.
NAAC has also decided to review the accreditation results of all higher education institutions (HEIs) assessed by these members, withholding results that are yet to be declared. The standing committee will re-examine these cases before announcing its final decision.
Further, NAAC will analyse all assessment visits conducted over the past year and present its findings to the executive committee for necessary action. The NAAC said it plans to implement IT-based assessment systems alongside the newly introduced frameworks.
NAAC also said it had taken steps to address pending accreditation applications submitted under the revised accreditation framework (RAF). It has decided to allow HEIs in Cycle 2 and above to retain their current accreditation status until the new frameworks are in place.