Govt asks IITs, IIMs to go for accreditation

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 15: For improving the quality of education in the country the government is willing to invite ‘reputed’ agencies to accredit the higher education institutions. The Government has also asked the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to participate in the accreditation process, presently some of the IIMs have accreditation from international agencies.

The National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) are the two agencies accrediting institutions in India right now. The Union Minister for HRD, Prakash Javadekar said that the Government wants to increase the strength of NBA and NAAC so that more institutions can be accredited.

Javadekar further said that Government is open for other agencies to take the responsibility of accreditation and IITs and IIMs have been asked for the same so that more and more institutions can be accredited from reputed agencies.

The HRD Minister speaking at the ‘Positioning India on the Global Education Map: Strategies and Road Map’ Conference said that students community is now seeking quality education. He said, “Teacher development is an important aspect of quality development. We must encourage students to pursue teaching as a career.”

He also talked about an increased focus and budget allocations for research and development and encouraging accreditation by semi-private accreditation bodies.

While setting the context for the conference theme, Prof V S Chauhan stated that the Indian Higher education system is poised for growth and our institutions have arrived globally. However, what is required is a deeper understanding of the metrics of international education. He also suggested that global rankings need to include constitutional and local challenges in their rankings.