Prof. S C Sharma, Director, NAAC speaks to Sudheer Gouthm, CEO & Founder about the role of NAAC and the evolving higher education landscape in India. An IndiGlobal Media Network Exclusive.
What is the present coverage of NAAC?
We have affiliated colleges, autonomous colleges, state supported universities deemed to be universities and then we have the central universities. The landscape of higher education is very vast and the problems each one is facing are quite different. I must thank the government both central and state, for remarkably supporting NAAC and I must compliment the university grant commission.
I think 30 per cent of the education institutions have been accredited though it is mandated to reach all the higher education institutions it is slowly picking up. We have conducted numbers of programs and we have new initiatives which has been hosted for example, we have a newsletter which has all the information on programs and how do we bring the higher education institution into the fold and the number of accreditations in each state.
What is your take on change in the assessment?
Before 2018, the whole process of accreditation was subjective now there is a sea change in the evaluation. 70 % of it is quantitative which will be evaluated by a third party and 30 % is qualitative and in between you have this students’ satisfaction survey too. There is nothing manual, everything is ICT driven. We have a very good software framework & Caltron is the agency which has developed everything is digitized.
Everything is documented and any higher education institution can reach out to use. We respond immediately. Anyone can log on to our website and see the whole process how it has been done.
How has been the response from the stakeholders on the ground?
Initially, it was conceptualization and understanding which was a little bit of a problem to the rural institutions but over a period of time they have understood very well as information on the website is available both in Hindi and English languages. Filling up the self-study report and then analysis is easy. Moreover, we have a hand holding program. NAAC sponsors seminars, symposium and other programs. We have dedicated officers and advisors who have gone the length and breadth of this country. By hand holding the higher education institutions they could bring in 30 % of institutions into the fold. It is a continuous process.
What are the challenges that NAAC is facing?
Though we are doing the hand holding, some of the institutions are not coming forward for the accreditation. The challenge for NAAC is to address their problems and to bring them to the fold of NAAC accreditation. This can be done by approaching the university vice chancellors and by hand holding and telling them that quality is the very important mandate and it is the continuation of the education process for all the higher education institutions. The benefits that the higher education institutions get. If there is a quality in their education institution students should go there and study so that is the greatest challenge.
In terms of innovation do you see a marked improvement?
Before we get into the innovation we have dedicated people here who all worked on the state level qualification assurance reports. For all the states we have the state level qualification report. With this report we will get to know what are the kinds of problems that the higher education institutions are facing, And how to mitigate the problems. These are some of the important aspects which we have already taken into consideration. With the seven criteria we are mapped in which criteria what has to be done and how do we take it forward. We adopt our methodology properly and immediately apply and tell the higher education institution this is what you have to do by each matrix & conceptualization of matrices & key indicators these are all some of the segments.
In terms of the impact, NAAC inception itself is about maintaining the quality of education in India and maintaining the global competitiveness so that higher education in India stands among the global map. In regards to the quality, how do you see the improvement happening and how do you see it improving further in the coming years?
There is progression. Quality is the continuous process and over a period of time a lot of changes have happened. Our officers have continued with this mapping of international accreditation and this directly percolated to university and the higher education institutions. It continuous process of evaluation and for this we have this digital contour quality assurance step towards the national development.
Tell us about your campus?
We have acquired another 5 acres of land and built a small pond for biodiversity and we have planted 30,500 trees and there is a huge ICT block data center coming up. We spent around 1 crore 10 lacs on solar roof implementation. For differently-abled we have two other lifts and we have a digital library which has a wealth of data. Our toilets are completely refurbished and we have a cultural center here. Also we have a wonderful gymnasium and we have an excellent studio.
Even during Covid we conducted 350 programs. We have a distinguished professor as our chairman Professor Bhushan Patwardhan, Executive Committee Chairman. He has conceptualized and prepared a white paper one can log on to the website and see he is reimagining NAAC thought process in alignment with national education policy and that&s a very vital factor which will help the higher education institutions.
What is your take on National Education policy?
National Education Policy 2020 is 100 per cent the Bhagavad Gita of higher education. Policy makers have taken such great pain to get into the micro level of higher education. It is an amazing document and I pray that it should be implemented in total and I am sure that will
