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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)
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: Which are the International Accreditation Agencies and what is their background?
The US
based Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business AACSB
International pioneered the B-School Accreditation Process. Association
of MBAs followed suit in 1967 ACBSP followed and IACBE,
an offshoot of AACSB
is the latest entrant, having been founded in 1996. Across the Atlantic,
we have EQUIS, the
European Quality Improvement System managed by EFMD, and Association
of MBA. Although the basic contours of all accreditation processes are
similar, there are some distinguishing features as well:
AACSB lays primary
emphasis on Research Productivity - the scholarship of Innovation. The
innovation can be in academic, applied or pedagogical terms.
ACBSP
focuses on the scholarship of learning. Innovations in the classroom
become critical.
IACBE concentrates
on outcomes - two direct and two indirect metrics on which a school
has to demonstrate continuous improvement.
EQUIS looks at the
International Character of an institution - over an agreed time-frame,
25% of students and 25% of faculty must be from outside the country
of operation.
Association of MBAs
focuses on advancing the careers of graduate business professionals
and enthusiasts through continued education and knowledge through the
process of accreditation. The accreditation is for the courses and not
the institution. These are available for the MBM (Master of Business
Management, essentially executive MBA programmes ) and MBA (Indian equivalent
of Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM)
Q:
Who are the Indian Accreditation Agencies?
National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC)
and National Board for Accreditation. The agency is under the aegis
of University Grants Commission (UGC),
National Board for Accreditation (NBA)
of AICTE.
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:
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.