Binary (Draft)
* Developed only for the first-time NAAC Accreditation aspirants and also for those eligible HEIs who have been avoiding NAAC accreditation so far on some excuse or the other. HEIs graded as “Non accredited” would throw up data of the presence of poor quality institutes in the country and perhaps assist the govt. in mulling suitable assisting help or other suitable decision-making.
* Binary NAAC will serve as a first essential step to subsequently applying for the “Maturity Levels”
* NEP 2020 implementation has been included. (Attribute 1.3, 1.5 and 1.6)
* Enhanced focus on the skill development (Attributes 1.4 and 1.5)
* Enhanced focus on students wellness, sports, domain clubs, professional clubs, social initiatives (Attribute 6).
* Most attributes require 3-year data.
* No Qualitative Metrics but qualitative metrics are broken-down to sub attributes, each requiring a specific response.
* No Peer team visit.
* DVV is expected from a select group of institutes, instead of a third party.
* Strict penalty for any unjustifiable wrong data.
* One nation,one HEI data to serve as a tool for the SSR data authentication.
Some shortcomings in Binary would perhaps continue from the old NAAC version
* An absence of assessment rigour as was with the current system. Evidence of response would depend largely on the HEIs Minutes of Meeting, event report, photographs, easily manipulatable self authenticated documents etc.
* 80 to 90% of old SSR metrics are to get repeated in the Binary NAAC.
* Difference in benchmarks between institute to institute is only by the type of institute (university/autonomous/affiliated) and not by the vintage, size, region etc.
* A total absence of AI and other technology tools to capture real-time, ‘live’ n’ demonstrative performance of faculty and students teaching-learning competency, initiatives and activities.
What lessons can be drawn by the HEIs who are bracing up for the Maturity Levels
* If applying for the LEVELS after Binary, make sure your data for the Binary doesn’t become your Achilles Heels.
* If going for the LEVELS directly, start building your ONE data by doing activities and building processes (prepare an annual calendar) based on Dr Radhakrishnan’s Report. Don’t waste time since you might not be able to go back in time to build data. The supporting evidences for scrutiny of data would be very robust and NOT like the Binary NAAC.
-Prof JR Sharma
