The University Grants Commission (UGC) has made NAAC Accreditation mandatory by 2022. It very much indicates the attention the NAAC is drawing lately. Institutes, colleges, and universities are using NAAC as a benchmark to authenticate their excellent standards. Therefore NAAC accreditation has a unique procedure with a Self-study Report that drills right down to achieving institutional excellence. By the time an institute will become NAAC-ready, it’s far chiselled to perfection.

You already understand that NAAC offers an opportunity for institutions to,

  • Increase its efficiency
  • Realize its Best Qualities and Drawbacks
  • Work on improvement plans for the development

Let’s now move ahead to understand NAAC better through gaining knowledge of the process of Assessment. Concurrently, we can also see what it takes to the Self-study Report of the NAAC.

Evaluation and Accreditation

NAAC’s process is straightforward. The HEIs that prepares for the NAAC Accreditation are positioned to evaluate themselves in numerous ways—submitting files associated with the Self Study Report (SSR) and the Institutional Information for Quality Assessment (IIQA). By these, the HEIs show their compliance with the policies and standards placed forth by the NAAC committee.

According to the Revised Accreditation Framework (RAF), the NAAC has 3 levels of ICT-enabled accreditation method. With the brand new revision, there may be extra of the Student Satisfaction Survey, Data Verification, and Validation that augments the complete objective of the NAAC. All of these steps require a lot of information collection and reporting.

NAAC Accreditation Process

NAAC Accreditation is achieved in 3 Stages.

  • Institutional Information for Quality Assessment (IIQA) and Self Study Report (SSR).
  • Data Validation and Verification (DVV) and Pre-qualifier Score / Preparation towards Student Satisfaction Survey (SSS).
  • Onsite Peer Visit for Assessment.

7 Steps of NAAC Accreditation Process

  1. NAAC website registration
  2. Institutional Information for Quality Assessment (IIQA)
  3. SSR submission on acceptance of IIQA (On rejection, an institute has 2 attempts to RESUME the IIA from within 1 year)
  4. Data Validation & Verification (DVV) process and Pre-qualifier Score
  5. Preparation for the Student Satisfaction Survey (SSS)
  6. Onsite Peer Visit by NAAC
  7. NAAC announces the Institutional Grading

Step by Step NAAC Accreditation Process

NAAC Website Registration

The NAAC accreditation process starts right here with the Higher Education Institution (HEI) completing its registration on the NAAC website.

As a primary step, the HEI fills in the registration form, however with a legitimate AISHE reference code. This is more like building a profile of the institution. You may be a part of affiliated constituent colleges, private and deemed universities, autonomous colleges, however, this step is compulsory.

Any group applying for the Assessment and Accreditation (A&A) process ought to mandatorily have the AISHE reference code. On the other hand, the affiliated institutions ought to offer self-declaration with a clean mention of their present affiliation status.

Once the HEIs complete the registration form, the NAAC verifies and validates it. NAAC sends the Login Credentials to the HEI, allowing it to access the portal.

IIQA Submission

The HEI logs into the portal with valid credentials and fills the IIQA (Institutional Information for Quality Assessment) form and will pay the IIQA Fee, online. There are a lot of documents that ought to be submitted online in the proper layout here.

If you’re aware of the older NAAC process, the IIQA resembles more of the Letter of Intent (LoI), however with few differences.

IIQA functions via the two windows system. This new 2 windows system is the latest update according to the Revised Accreditation Framework (RAF). It is open 2 times a year, allowing institutions to submit their applications only through that window. To be extra precise, the window system accepts the applications at different points in the year, i.e, May – June and November – December.

The IIQA eligibility announcement takes 15 days.

SSR Submission

The subsequent step is the submission of the Self Study Report (SSR).

On receiving the IIQA acceptance, the institution works towards the SSR submission.

They fill the SSR form, upload all essential documents and pay the primary SSR Instalment Fee Online. This is the registration fee. Following this, they post data with each Quantitative and Qualitative metric, add applicable documents and pick non-applicable metrics.

To be noted: Institutes need not publish the hard copies of the SSR at this stage. If you may want more help, you can additionally take the help of the NAAC website which has clean guidance for the submission online.

Data Validation & Verification (DVV) process

Post SSR submission, all of the data/records submitted is confirmed thru the Data Validation and Verification (DVV) procedure. This verification is carried out with the use of an online mechanism, which generates a pre-qualifier score.

The DVV process is lots of elucidation process. If the institutions have furnished incorrect records/data for the Quantitative metrics, they unwell be requested for clarifications here. Formally a deviation report might be sent to the institutions looking for clarification.

At this point, if the organization is observed to have submitted fraudulent statistics/data, it’ll not only be debarred from the accreditation procedure however additionally dealt with legally.

It is to be cited that there’s no constant timeline for the whole DVV process. However, during the DVV clarification stage, the establishments are expected to reply with clarity in the stipulated time set by the DVV team.

As a very last step, the NAAC will re-examine the submitted data and rely on the extent of the deviation and arrive at a pre-qualifier rating. The minimal pre-qualifier score set to qualify for the SSR is 30%.

Those with much less than 30% ought to re-apply for the A&A procedure through the IIQA. In this manner, they have to observe afresh from the beginning and pay all prices throughout again, however on one condition. They might be eligible to apply after 6 months from the date of declaration about the prequalification.

Student Satisfaction Survey (SSS)

This process takes place concurrently along the DVV. Complete submission of the students’ statistics is performed during the online submission of SSR. They interact with college students in the quality assurance process. The SSS rankings might be calculated as a part of the overall CGPA.

To behaviour the SSS, the organization should have submitted the entire student rely on their enrollment details, number, programme, their year of study, contact number, and e-mail ids.

Student groups are one of the essential stakeholders in the complete evaluation procedure, and the NAAC is aware of it too well. Hence that is one of A&A’s vital processes.

Onsite Peer Visit by NAAC

This is a vital step in the NAAC accreditation process. The onsite evaluation is al a peer evaluation by the visiting crew. The crew assesses all of the records provided at the qualitative metrics.

The crew comprises eminent academicians, researchers, senior administrators, all from the educational arena. They adopt an Assessors Orientation Programme, which grooms them to be an ace Peer Team Member.

NAAC has distributed the quantitative and qualitative metrics in a proportion of around 2/3rd and 1/3 rd respectively. HEIs are predicted to publish their data/records online in the stated formats.

Institutional Grading by NAAC

The final results might then be placed before the Executive council of NAAC for approval. Followed by it, NAAC Accreditation status and the Institutional Grade are declared.