BENGALURU: Marking its 30th Foundation Day, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is gearing up for its next milestone with a focus on two major themes under the ‘NAAC 30 ++’ agenda. The accreditation body will take up the role of promoting a quality assurance system, systematically rolling out reforms, bringing all the institutions under accreditation and expanding into related areas of higher education.
During the celebratory event, Ganesan Kannabiran, Director, NAAC, said, “The core areas include effective implementation of proposed reforms through a ‘light but tight’ accreditation methodology to assure a threshold level of quality at the national level. We are also ready to launch the binary accreditation in the next few months.”
He added that the focus of NAAC in the next five years will be to provide a guided path to higher educational institutions (HEIs ) to improve their quality to international levels through a maturity-based framework.
Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot announced that the accreditation body will also venture into volunteering, which includes skilling students and youth, starting from Bengaluru. Under the ‘NAAC Social Responsibility Cluster’ (NSRC), children and youth from underprivileged sections of society will be able to network with students and individuals working in the IT and other leading sectors to get exposure and create a wider talent pool. The first set of collaborations will include Bangalore University, National Law School of India University and Dr BR Ambedkar School of Economics University for specific initiatives. College students will be trained on various aspects to create employability and entrepreneurship through short training programmes and mentorship.
NAAC has set a target of accrediting 90% of the HEIs in the next five years and also hand-holding and mentoring institutes in rural and remote locations.