Frequently
Asked Questions
Q: What is accreditation?
Accreditation is a voluntary system of evaluation of higher education
institutions and programs. It is a collegial process based on self-evaluation
and peer-assessment for improvement of academic quality and public
accountability. Accreditation assures those higher education institutions
and their units, schools, or programs meet appropriate standards
of quality and integrity.
Accreditation is both a process and a condition. The process entails
the assessment of educational quality and the continued enhancement
of educational operations through the development and validation
of standards. The condition provides a credential to the public-at-large
indicating that an institution and/or its programs have accepted
and are fulfilling their commitment to educational quality.
Q: Why should go in for accreditation?
Accreditation is the best self assessment benchmark which is also
endorsed by an outside agency of experts giving it utmost credibility.
The independent nature of the accreditation agency also adds a lot
of value to quality benchmarking of my school which will help me
to differentiate among the peers. The outcome of the process will
be useful to the students and parents in making a choice of the
institution. It will be useful to the funding authorities/agencies
like government, University Grants Commission and other bodies to
make decisions on formulating policies
Q: Is Accreditation compulsory?
No. It is not compulsory as the accreditation should always
remain voluntary since quality has to happen as a commitment from
within. Regulation has no place here. However in India it is mandatory
for Technical institutions including Business Schools to go for
accreditation under All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)
www.aicte.ernet.in
guidelines. It is enough for an Engineering college or business
school to with AICTE and affiliation with any University, but they
should also obtain accreditation as a proof of quality education
from AICTE-NBA or NAAC.
Q: Who are the Indian accreditation agencies?
National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) and
National Board for Accreditation. See details in www.naacindia.org
. The agency is under the aegis of University Grants Commission
(UGC) www.ugc.ac.in
National Board for Accreditation (NBA) of AICTE www.nba-aicte.ernet.in
Q: what sort of accreditation will these
agencies provide?
NAAC provides accreditation of institutions and individual departments
while the NBA focuses attention on the courses the technical institutions
offer. NAAC provides accreditation on a Five point scale for a period
of Five years and the institutions can go in for improvement in
their grade through an assessment process after two years of initial
accreditation. NBA accreditation for a course is for a period of
two years. The programme is either accredited or rejected and the
institution can reapply for the programme accreditation.
Q: What is the process of obtaining accreditation?
Both the agencies expect at the outset for the institutions to provide
a statement of intention and later procure the respective application
forms to provide detailed assessment of the schools. The process
also includes visit by a team of experts from the agencies after
which the accreditation would be provided.
Q: Who is eligible for accreditation
NAAC requires that the institution i.e. the University
and the Colleges that are affiliated to university and have at least
five years of standing or output of 2 batches are eligible to seek
institutional accreditation. Departments of universities with five
years of standing or output of two batches are also eligible to
seek departmental accreditation.
Q: Which are the global accreditation agencies?
Business schools are usually accredited by one of three agencies:
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB),
Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP),
and the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education
(IACBE). U.S. institutions must also hold regional accreditation
additionally.
Q: Is there separate accreditation process
for engineering colleges?
Unlike in India most countries have a separate process for accrediting
engineering colleges and programmes. For instance in the US te Accreditation
Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) has been the major quality
assurance mechanism for engineering education since the 1930’s.
It is mature, and covers essentially all of the engineering, technology,
computer science, and related programs in the country. It also has
served as a model for engineering accreditation developments in
other countries, and it has developed major international thrusts
such as substantial equivalency reviews of engineering programs
in foreign countries where it has been invited |
