Parliament Question: Accreditation of Higher Educational Institutes

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3543 ANSWERED ON 11/08/2025 Accreditation of Higher Educational Institutes

3543. Thiru Dayanidhi Maran:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a) whether any irregularities have been reported against Institutes in accreditation by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) for securing high grades through unethical means and around 20% assessors have been removed from NAAC and if so, the details thereof;

(b) the total number of Institutes failed to secure the ranking during the last three yerars, year-wise;

(c) the steps being taken by the Government to restore public trust in the accreditation process and ensure transparent evaluation of higher educational institutions;

(d) whether the Government has assessed the adverse impact of over-reliance on ranking system and citation-based metrics, especially disciplines like Humanities and Social Sciences and if so, the details thereof;

(e) whether the Government has any plans to introduce peer-reviewed, context-sensitive and discipline-specific assessment frameworks in place of metric-driven evaluations;

(f) whether the Government has any plan to enhance public fund for higher education and reduce the regulatory dependence on rankings for grants, approvals and recognition; and

(g) if so, the details thereof along with timelines and if not, the reasons therefor? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR)

(a) National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) assesses and accredits Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in its quality pursuits and grades them in different levels for their achievements.

Removal or addition of assessors from the database of Assessors is a routine process of NAAC. The peer Review system is continuously improved by adding members as per the requirements. The removal of 847 assessors from the database of Assessors is consequential to the scrutiny started in October 2023 based on the set procedures.

Removal of the Assessors are due to one or more of the following reasons: o Assessors who were constantly declining acceptance of peer team visits. o Assessors who have done more visits as compared to other assessors.o Assessors who have not prepared and submitted the Peer Team Reports (PTRs) as per the requirements. Incomplete entries in the Assessors database.

o Based on feedback from fellow Assessors / HEIs

(b) National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranks institutions based on five broad parameters namely, Teaching Learning and Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practice (RP), Graduate Outcomes (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI) and Perception

(PR). NIRF has ranked sixteen disciplines/ categories in the latest edition of India Rankings

2024. The ranks were announced in eight categories and eight subject domains. The NIRF provides ranks and rank bands in all the above categories/disciplines. The ranks are announced for Top 100 Institutions and rank bands from 101-150, 151-200 and 201-300 are also announced.

(c) NAAC adopts a transparent, stakeholder-driven approach in developing its manuals, aiming to raise benchmarks in line with evolving higher education trends. Over the past six months, NAAC has significantly tightened its Assessment and Accreditation (A&A) protocols to ensure rigorous scrutiny and uphold the integrity of the evaluation process.

(d) The General Degree Colleges, State Universities and Universities are ranked under separate categories. The ranking methodology used to rank institutions considers several parameters such as Citation based metrics, Student strength, Faculty student ratio, Faculty Qualification and Experience, Number of Publications, Placement and Higher Studies, Median Salary, Students Graduated, Women Diversity, Regional Diversity, Economically and Socially Challenged students etc

(e) For strengthening the Assessment and Accreditation of HEIs, a Committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, Chairperson, Board of Governors, lndian lnstitute of Technology (llT) Kanpur & Chairperson, Standing Committee of llT Council. This Committee has considered the introduction of strategic reforms consistent with the vision of the National Education Policy, 2020 and the need for adopting a simple, trust-based, objective and rationalized system for approval, accreditation and ranking of HEIs through technology-driven systems. The Executive Committee of NAAC has adopted the recommendations of the Dr Radhakrishnan’s Committee report.

(f) and (g) Various schemes/projects/programmes run by Ministry of Education have been aligned with NEP 2020. As far as Central Government is concerned, Budget allocation has constantly increased from the year 2021-22 to 2025-26 as given below:

Year 2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25 2025-26 Budget Allocation 93,224.31 1,04,277.72 1,12,899.47 1,21,117.77 1,28,650.05 (Rs. in Crore) Regulatory framework of UGC made under the provisions of UGC Act, 1956 is for regulating the maintenance of standards and the co-ordination work or facilities in Universities.

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