“In days to come accreditation is going to be critical component of discussion and research. We need to gear up ourselves” said Prof M K Sridhar, President of Centre for Educational and Social Studies (CESS) and Founder Chancellor, Chanakya University, Karnataka. He was the keynote speaker in a program to release a report titled “National Education Policy 2020: Accreditation as an Enabler of Regulation in Higher Education” at ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education, Hyderabad. The report was prepared by ICFAI and CESS.
Prof Sridhar said that accreditation is a reliable way to enable regulation and the report has taken an in depth look at regulation. He said that the NEP needs many such studies probing different dimensions, as real analysis comes with such studies. He called for attention on the limited accreditation with only 20% of the institutes going for accreditation. “ For any change to take place it needs to be at the macro level, at the Intermediate level and at the micro level. At the macro level the NEP has set the guidelines, in the intermediate level the policy is clear about different bodies and frameworks. When it comes to micro level which is very important and critical to see how micro units take challenge to gear themselves to bring about changes. Real quality comes from efforts put at the micro level” added Prof Sridhar.
Sri Guntha Laxman Ji National Joint Organizing Secretary, Akhila Bharatiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Maha Sangh said that NEP 2020 is a game changer and it has addressed issues like strengthening the roots on which the Indian education system was built and channelizing the young generation towards the right path. He said that it is the responsibility of all the stakeholders need to raise to the expectations of the policy.
Dr B S Madhukar, Former Adviser, National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) introduced the research report. Presenting the report he said that different aspects of regulation like fee structure, new courses, intake of students have been addressed by accreditation in the last few years. He highlighted the fact that though there are several accreditation bodies in the country, there are discrepancies in ranks and rating given by these agencies.
Dr Madhukar also said that based on recommendation of NEP a meta-accrediting body called National Accrediting Council (NAC) will be set up to ensure adherence to Higher Education regulation, and for transformation of affiliated colleges to autonomous colleges. He said that the report also suggested a course of action for NAC with mandatory and variable parts of accreditation. The mandatory part looks at the regulation requirements, and the variable part looks at quality and standards. This was to be done by Accrediting Agencies, and institutes will have a choice to choose the agency, he said.
Smt Sobha Rani Yasaswy, Chairperson ICFAI Society released the Research report. Dr. J. Mahender Reddy, Vice Chancellor, ICFAI in his welcome address spoke about the achievements of the University in teaching, research, publications and accreditation. He said that the university emphasizes on the overall development of the faculty and funds many projects that faculty initiate.
