IITs, IIMs, to help government in accreditation work: Prakash Javadekar

Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday said the government is going to expand the number of accreditation agencies and has asked the IITs and IIMs to come together and be a rating agency in itself.

"We have decided to expand the number of accreditation agencies. We have asked the IITs, IIMs, IISERs and all good universities to come together for the country and be a rating agency in itself," Javadekar said at the fourth World Summit of Accreditation here.

There will be multiple rating agencies in future, he said, adding that government is also increasing the strength of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). The NAAC is one of the two accreditation agencies in the country, the other being National Board of Accreditation.

"There used to be suspicions about accreditation because of subjective evaluation... earlier the emphasis was on infrastructure, earlier the emphasis was on many other technical details, and little emphasis on learning outcome.

"Now we have changed. Now the 80 per cent emphasis is on learning outcome," said the minister.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had last month notified a 'University Grants Commission (Recognition and Monitoring of Assessment and Accreditation Agencies) Regulations-2018', to facilitate establishment of more accreditation agencies.

The notification allows for setting up of government and semi-government agencies, which will be assessed by a 10-member Accreditation Advisory Council (AAC) to be formed as per the notification.