Mita Mukherjee
The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has removed 400 assessors in the last one year and three months after receiving allegations that they had awarded wrong or higher grades to institutes, Anil D Sahasrabudhe, chairman of the NAAC executive committee said.
In all, 900 peer-team members have been removed for similar allegations against them over the span of a few years. “As many as 400 assessors have been removed in the last one year three months for giving wrong and higher grades or mismatch between remarks and marks awarded showing non seriousness etc,” Sahasrabudhe told EducationWorld.
The move followed a complaint to the Central Bureau of Investigation alleging that assessors visiting Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, a deemed university in Andhra Pradesh had accepted bribe in exchange for awarding the highest ranking to the institute.
When asked whether police complaint have been filed against the removed assessors, Sahasrabudhe told EducationWorld, “The CBI is enquiring. We have not filed any complaint.”
The grading of about the 400 institutions had begun in July- August 2023. In the existing system the NAAC awards grades of A++, A+, A, B++, B+, B and C for scores between 4 and 3.51, 3.5 and 3.26, 3.25 and 3.01, 3 and 2.76, 2.75 and 2.51, 2.5 and 2.01 and 2 and 1.51. The accredidation is valid for five years.
An institution seeking the accreditation needs to upload on a dedicated NAAC portal its ” self-study report ” containing the details of its areas of strength based on several parameters.
The report is verified by a NAAC coordinator and data verification and validation ( DVV) “partner” an agency that conducts the verification of the data given by the institutes in the ” self-study report” through an online process.
After the online verification by the DVV partner a physical verification is carried out through a peer team visit (PTV) by experts appointed by the council. The peer team examines the institutions on multiple ” matrices” and awards a score between 0 and 4 on each matrix.
Thirty per cent weight is given to the PTV report and 70 per cent to the DVV during the grading. The NAAC’s decision to take strict action against the 400 assessors for indulging corrupt practices is significant as it comes at a time when the council has already started the process of adopting a new policy to assess institutions and award grades to institutions of higher education in which physical inspections will be phased.
The NAAC’s proposed grading policy – Maturity – Based Graded Levels recommended by an expert committee aims to eliminate physical inspections because the ” corrupt practices” like offering bribe to assessors for exchange of higher grades have been detected mostly at this stage of the grading process, sources in the NAAC said.
Some of the irregularities detected by the council include a jump of two or more notches over the previous grade awarded five years ago, awarding the highest A++ or the second highest A + grade to an institution getting assessed for the first time and mismatch between the DVV and PTV reports.
