Unlike earlier, agencies apart from National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) will now be able to accredit higher education institutes according to the norms of University Grants Commission (UGC). The central institution has allowed their entry through a new regulation.
In a meeting held this month, the commission passed new rules, in order to help UGC to grant licenses to these third-party agencies. This regulation now awaits the nod of HRD ministry.
Few of the names of the new accreditation bodies include the renowned Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), according to the leading media groups. In a meeting of IIT directors held in Chennai last month, the premier engineering schools of India, have agreed to set up a Section 8 company, that will apply for a license under the new UGC norms.
The union government took this decision because it feels that the inputs of IITs will lend excellence to the process of accreditation. The central idea behind allowing entry of other agencies apart from NAAC and NBA is to relieve some of their burdens and to provide promising institutes and universities more alternatives.