SCRUTINEER COMES UNDER SCRUTINY

The resignation of its executive committee (EC) chairperson and a recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has brought the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) back under the scanner for alleged irregularities. Set up in 1994, the NAAC is an autonomous body under the UGC (University Grants Commission) that assesses the quality of India’s higher educational institutions (HEIs) on multiple parameters and grants them grades ranging from A++ to C. (Any university or college graded D is not accredited.)

EC chairperson Bhushan Patwardhan, who joined the office in February 2022, had been repeatedly demanding an independent inquiry into the council’s functioning. Alleging people with “vested interests” were indulging in “malpractices”, leading to “questionable grades” awarded to some institutions, Patwardhan had first raised the issue with UGC chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar in September 2022. He cited his own experiences and the findings of an inquiry that he had commissioned to support his allegations.

The inquiry committee, headed by UGC’s Information and Library Network director J.P. Singh Joreel, had found the IT system of the NAAC “compromised”. The assessors were being allocated “arbitrarily”, the panel claimed, observing that such practices were sparking potential cases of conflict of interest. The report said that nearly 70 per cent of experts from the pool of around 4,000 assessors did not get any opportunity to make site visits, while others had made multiple visits. Some individuals without authority allegedly had full access to the NAAC’s internal system. Patwardhan reiterated his charges in another letter to Kumar on February 26 and expressed his desire to resign. In response, the UGC chairman replaced Patwardhan with former AICTE chairperson Anil D. Sahasrabudhe. Patwardhan disputed this, saying that his intent to resign was misconstrued as his resignation letter. However, on March 5, he finally did resign, citing self-respect and the need to “safeguard the sanctity” of the NAAC.

But this is not all. Even the CAG has pulled up the NAAC for glaring discrepancies in its assessment process. In a recent note sent to the council with queries, the body charged it with awarding “arbitrary grade points” to several HEIs across India. The country’s apex auditor went through the accreditation body’s confidential peer-team assessment reports and found discrepancies in 29 per cent of test-checked cases—41 out of the total 133 HEIs. In most cases, observations did not match the scores given.

The auditor’s note asked why highgrade points were given for indicators like green energy or rainwater harvesting even when such facilities were not installed at the said institutes. In some cases, high points were given for aspects about which colleges were silent in their report submissions. Random cross-verification of reports of certain institutions also showed that grades awarded by peer team members were not at variance with the submission made by colleges. For instance, when the peer team visited a college in Bellampally in Andhra Pradesh, it found that unwanted waste was being burnt in the open, causing air pollution. Yet, the college was awarded the highest score of four marks. In contrast, Bhavana Trust College of Commerce, Deonar, which was lauded for being on “the path to becoming plastic-free”, was given one mark.

PEOPLE WITH VESTED INTERESTS ARE INDULGING IN MALPRACTICES... LEADING TO QUESTIONABLE GRADES BHUSHAN PATWARDHAN

Former Chairperson, NAAC Executive Committee THE SYSTEM’S INTEGRITY REMAINS INTACT DUE TO ITS DECENTRALISED NATURE, TRANSPARENCY, AND ACCESSIBILITY S.C. SHARMA, Director, NAAC