The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has notified regulations in January, 2014 on the lines of UGC Regulations, 2012. As per the University Grants Commission (Mandatory Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012, notified on 19th January, 2013, it is mandatory for each Higher Educational Institution to get accredited by an Accreditation Agency after passing out of two batches or six years, whichever is earlier, in accordance with the norms and methodology prescribed by such agency or the Commission, as the case may be. Further as per these Regulations, every Higher Educational Institution, which has completed six years of existence or two batches having passed out, whichever is earlier, is to apply within six months from the date of coming into force of these Regulations, to the Accreditation Agency, for accreditation.
According to the Regulations, the process of accreditation has been laid down for achieving the following objectives, namely: advancing academic quality; enabling students and other stakeholders to make informed choices with regard to Higher educational institutions; to facilitate Higher Educational Institutions to augment quality, by bench-marking uniform reference points pertaining to academic standards; to facilitate Higher Educational Institutions to acquire international recognition, cross-border and trans-national collaborations; etc. The regulations are available at http://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/8541429_English.PDF.
The National Board of Accreditation (NBA) is already conducting accreditation of technical programmes being offered by technical institutions. The UGC and AICTE Regulations recognize NBA as an ‘Assessment and Accreditation Agency’ for the purpose of undertaking accreditation. National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) does not undertake programme accreditation and does only institutional accreditation.
Apart from making assessment and accreditation mandatory for higher educational institutions, the UGC has already laid down minimum standards of instruction for the grant of first degree, Master’s degree and M.Phil/Ph.D degree. It has also laid down minimum qualifications for the appointment of teachers and academic staff in Universities and Colleges. The UGC has further laid down the UGC(Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2010 and UGC(Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulations, 2003 for maintaining standards in Deemed to be Universities and Private Universities respectively.
This information was given by the Union HRD Minister Smt. Smriti Irani in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question today.
Source: Press Information Bureau
