India has one of the biggest, multi-dimensional and intricate higher educational systems in the world with 1000+ universities and 58,000 Higher Educational Institutions (HEI). Indian tertiary education system is the third largest after China and United States of America (USA). The Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) is presently inching towards 30% with various reforms and schemes from the government of India in capacity building like setting up new IITs, IIMs, and federally funded universities as also strengthening and enhancing the existing ones. Private sector has also played its part, which is evident in the mushrooming of institutions of tertiary learning especially in the professional education space and mainly in the southern states. The state of Tamil Nadu is a front-runner in the higher education space. The GER of the state stands at 47%, which is much higher than the national average. India has seen significant progression in Higher Education with an aspirational figure of 50% as the target in various policies to be attained in the next couple of decades.
This incredible growth in this space has brought about its share of issues. These include multifarious issues related to access, accreditation, employability, equity, faculty, funding, research, quality, and ranking. As per the FICCI Higher education report, It is estimated that higher education enrolment will be north of 140 million by 2030 which means that one in every four graduates globally will be from India.
Size does matter. However, quality is needed as well. A fine balance has to be struck between quality and quantity.
Accreditation and rankings are very crucial to address this. These provide 360 degrees feedback of all aspects of a higher educational institution, be it academics, research, innovation, extension, administration, governance, student engagement, campus facilities & amenities. In India, National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is involved in institutional accreditation and National Board of Accreditation (NBA) for program accreditation for engineering, management and pharmacy programs. NBA is a member of the Washington Accord resulting in equivalence of degrees with programs of several developed economies. Several top universities have also taken international accreditations like ABET, AMBA, AACSB primarily for engineering and management programs. For other disciplines, program accreditation is not there but to some extent; the statutory body for the program encompasses certain quality and compliance aspects during its approval process. For these disciplines, institutional accreditation by NAAC also considers various aspects of quality in the program. In the futuristic regulatory architecture as part of NEP2020, accreditation & rankings will become a very important vertical and all institutions will be covered in one way or other, even if it is an institution of national important like IIT or IIM. NAAC is moving to a binary accreditation format so that more HEI are attracted towards the same from the current 20% or so. To incentivize the higher performers, a maturity based graded level system is in the works with the five levels and the level five being an institution of global excellence.
In 2016, Ministry of Education unveiled the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) for ranking all types of HEI. After 8 years, as on date, this ranking has gone from strength to strength and has evolved with more than 10,000+ HEI participating and rankings being offered in 16 disciplines or categories such as universities., colleges, medical colleges, engineering colleges etc. Hitherto, various magazines and private agencies were ranking HEI. With the advent of NIRF, a level playing field with transparency has emerged for stakeholders of higher education like parents and employers. Another welcome sign is that new categories and disciplines are added every year and feedback is elicited on parameters from time to time. The NIRF parameters are such that these also enable and facilitate Indian HEI to accomplish higher ranks in the world university rankings such as Times Higher Education (THE) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). We are now seeing record numbers of Indian universities and HEI figuring in these rankings such as world rankings, Asia rankings, subject rankings or impact (sustainability) rankings of THE & QS.
The state of Tamil Nadu has been one of the best performers in the NIRF rankings year on year. This is evident in the latest NIRF 2024 rankings released on 12 August 2024. In the top 100 universities, 22 universities are from Tamil Nadu with Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Coimbatore leading the pack in 7th place, followed by VIT in 10th place, Saveetha, SRM and Anna universities with 11th, 12th and 13th ranks. Out of the top 100 arts & science colleges, 37 are from the state of Tamil Nadu. This is a reflection of the conducive climate for higher education in the state of Tamil Nadu. And the fact that the private sector has complimented the central and state governmental policies and initiatives in higher education.
Of course, there are criticisms of ranking and accreditation processes such as accuracy, subjectivity, usefulness, lopsidedness in parameters & methodology, perception, excessive documentation, and hostile peer team expert visits. Nevertheless, we need to understand the reality that there can be never be a perfect system or a customized one to suit a specific institution. Parameters and methodology can improve and evolve over time considering various sensitivities and nuances of various disciplines and programs as also the inputs of various stakeholders.
We have to accept the fact that accreditation and rankings have become part and parcel of the educational landscape. These consider fairly inclusive and universal benchmarks and metrics relating to perception, internationalization, measures of earning, research impact, publications, patents & citations, selectivity, student success, amenities, and facilities.
What are the benefits of these? I put these in 4 buckets as follows:
- Reputation & Visibility
- Gives HEI a renewed sense of roadmap and distinctiveness.
- Establishes the brand and reputation
- Provides society and all stakeholders such as parents and students with accurate and dependable data on all aspects of the education offered by the HEI
- Globalization
- Encourages intra and inter-institutional interactions and cross-border relationships with global and national HEI so as to enable flow and circulation of talent, information, technology, and funding
- Pique the interest of researchers, faculty and students from foreign shores which will enrich campus diversity and internationalization in the community
- Research & Academic Development
- Offers research funding organizations accurate and unbiased information for award of grants
- Offers industry employers accurate and unbiased information for recruiting talent
- Attract global universities to collaborate in mutually beneficial research projects and/or centers of excellence
- Nurture multicultural perspectives of faculty, researchers and students
- Nudge Indian HEI into pedagogical and curricular improvements in line with the global best practices
- Extend the quality, breadth, and impact of academic programmes
- Strategic Planning:
- Helps the institution to know its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges (SWOC) by looking inwards as also perform internal assessment of all aspects.
- Encourages objective decision-making based on HEI performance indicators so as to aid the planning and resource allocation process
- Evolve strategies and policies that can then be aligned with performance metrics to improve quality.
- Benchmark against ‘best practice’ from global and national peers.
One may argue that we do not care for these rankings or accreditation. However, at the end of the day, the release of various rankings is highlighted widely in global and national media outlets as also considered by various stakeholders of higher education.
Like them or hate them, you cannot ignore them. Rankings & accreditations are here to stay…
Quoting Smt. Smriti Irani, Former Union Minister for education, Government of India at the launch of NIRF in 2015
“Ranking and Accreditation are two important tools for a movement towards quality…. The Ranking framework will empower a larger number of Indian Institutions to participate in the global rankings, and create a significant impact internationally too.”
About the Author
Dr. Prashant R. Nair, Head, Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, has over twenty-four years of academic and administrative experience. He has taught in academic programs in the USA and Europe at University of California, San Diego; Sofia University, Bulgaria and University of Trento, Italy as an Erasmus fellow. He has written 6 books, 2 edited books, 1 book chapter and over 50 publications in reputed journals, books and conferences. He is active as a science writer & columnist. He has been serving as the Chairman/Vice-Chairman/Coordinator of Amrita University's Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) since 2009. He has coordinated 3 cycles of NAAC accreditation, 2 cycles of NBA Accreditation, NIRF rankings, Swachh campus rankings and also served as UGC nodal officer for university with achievements such as A++ grade by NAAC, top private university in India in both national and international university rankings. A very sought after speaker, by conservative estimates has addressed 150,000 students and trained 15,000+ faculty on technology, innovation, professional bodies and quality aspects of higher education in India, USA, Thailand, Russia, Italy, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Singapore, Nepal, Bhutan etc. Awards & recognitions won include multiple CSI best faculty and academic excellence awards, IEEE Education Society global chapter achievement award, IETE fellowship, Fulbright program reviewer, etc.