India’s National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has made several changes to its assessment process and shared an updated set of guidelines for colleges and universities. According to the new guidelines, the peer team assessment will be online for colleges and in hybrid mode for universities.  Colleges will be informed about the peer team on the day of the assessment. In the case of offline visits, the university will be informed two days in advance.

For the virtual visit, colleges will have to arrange for a video-camera system and show live video captured through a camera with GPS/location enabled. The numbers of assessors in a peer team have also been reduced. The guidelines also mention, among other things, that higher education institutes should also refrain from offering gifts (in cash or kind).

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has been on a clean-up drive after the recent “cash for accreditation scores” scandal.

The NAAC was set up in 1994 as an independent body of the University Grants Commission to assess and accredit higher education institutions (HEIs) in the country. The list of new guidelines are available here.