NAAC to Adopt Digital Assessment & Evaluation Technique

NAAC i.e. the National Assessment & Accreditation Council has now decided to bring changes in the evaluation process of higher education institutes. This would include the maintenance of a record of university and college data in an online format.

Mr. V.S. Chauhan, who is the Chairman of the NAAC Executive Council stated that these changes are being introduced in order to bring more objectivity in the entire process. This will also lead to reduced human interference in the assessment process.

At present, NAAC is not accepting any application requests from universities or colleges as on 31st March 2017 because of the proposed changes in the assessment process.

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How will the new system be different from the previous one?

It will depend on technology for the collection of data (internal software) as against the previous system wherein a physical committee used to go to the concerned institute/college to collect the data that often led to allegations and questions. The data so captured will not be accessible from outside, and the qualification of assessors will be given due attention.

This new digitized system will become operational from July 2017.

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While addressing the recently held conference at Symbiosis International University, Mr. V.S. Chauhan also said that since technology has become an inevitable part of our lives now, it can also help capture data of the institutes online and the chances of policing and subjectivity of humans will come down to the minimum. The only concern that is significant in this approach is that the colleges, as well as universities, shall provide data correctly, failing which they may be penalized. He added that the officers or the team of assessors will visit the institutes, but the size of the team and the frequency will be reduced.

An official meeting will also be held to communicate it to the concerned officials that NAAC’s role is only limited to the overall assessment of an educational institution overall, and it does not hold any control over it.

Educational institutes were also consulted with respect to the proposed changes, and many of them seemed comfortable with the same.

With inputs from Press Trust of India