JOIN USGovt working to merge NAAC and NBA after proposing JEE-NEET-CUET merger: Report
On the back of making a strong pitch for the merger of JEE Main and NEET with the Common University Entrance Test (CUET-UG), the central government is now looking to merge the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and the National Board of Accreditation (NBA).
While the NAAC is the only government agency with the authority to accredit and rate universities, the NBA serves a similar function for technical institutes. In addition, the NBA is also responsible for the publication of annual rankings for higher educational institutes, known as the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).
The process to merge the NAAC and the NBA to create a unified ranking and accreditation system in the country is part of the government’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 that seeks to set up a “meta-accreditation body” called the National Accreditation Council (NAC), and, according to a report by The Indian Express, the process is already under way.
As per the report, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has already set up a committee under NAAC executive committee chairman Bhushan Patwardhan to work out the details and oversee the merger process.
The committee headed by Patwardhan, who earlier served as the University Grants Commission (UGC) vice-chairman, also contains Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra vice-chancellor Indranil Manna, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati professor K N Ganesh, IIT-Delhi ex-director Dr Surender Prasad, Central University of Hyderabad vice-chancellor B J Rao, and UGC joint secretary Dr Manju Singh, who will be in charge of coordination.
The committee will study the accreditation methods of the NAAC and the NBA, as well as the ranking system used for the NIRF rankings. In addition to drawing up plans to align these three systems to form the proposed NAC, the committee will also recommend a suitable mechanism to ensure proper communication between the extant bodies.