What is NAAC and NBA Accreditation?

By Shubham
February 7, 2023

There are over fifteen thousand colleges in India which AICTE approves in 2023. As we know, the students’ quality passing out from colleges is getting more inferior day by day. The biggest reason is not researching the colleges before getting into one. For addressing the deterioration in quality in education, the government of India established NAAC in 1994. NAAC and NBA are both independent bodies funded by the UGC (University Grants Commission) and the AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education).

The freshers going into an undergraduate degree or a post-graduate degree would want to get into the right college. The NAAC accreditation of a college or a university is essential. It will help you decide on selecting the right institution. An institution can request to inspect their college by the NAAC, but it is not mandatory for both accreditations. NAAC is an Institute level accreditation, whereas the NBA is accreditation for an individual course. Let us discuss in brief what these two terms mean.

What is Accreditation?

Accreditation is a legal identification of an educational institution or a degree course by an authorized third-party body. The institution or degree should meet the necessary criteria or standards. The accreditation helps the students get recognized by the companies to get great work after completing the degree.

National Assessment and Accreditation Council

NAAC is an independent government body established by the UGC to assess and accredits Higher education institutions within India. It evaluates the quality of an institution based on some factors. After assessing the institution, a grade for that institution is defined. The grade defined for the institutions is C to A++, where C is the least and A++ being the most reliable. The institutions should renew the grade in five years by again assessing the institution by the NAAC.

As per the reports, currently, there are more than 5000 NAAC colleges across the country. You can check the detailed information on their official website.

The NAAC evaluation and accreditation is based on the following criteria

Curricular Aspects
Research, Innovations and Extension
Teaching-Learning and Evaluation
Student Support and Progression
Infrastructure and Learning Resources
Governance, Leadership and Management
Institutional Values and Best Practices

Each criterion has unique marks and cumulates by taking the average of all marks.

Benefits of NAAC Accreditation

Institutions get to know their strengths and weaknesses through a detailed report.
Association of internal areas of planning and resource allocation.
It helps Institutions to initiate innovative and modern methods of education.
Institutions get a sense of orientation and status for institutions.
People often tend to look for reliable information on the education offered by an institute.
Employers while recruitment, take reliable information into consideration.
Intra and Inter-institutional interactions increases.

National Board of Accreditation (NBA)

NBA directs to the program’s accreditations rather than the entire institution. These include diplomas, undergraduate, and postgraduate programs. The institutes where there are several departments, or a university, this accreditation is more convenient there. The program also includes engineering, management, technology, architecture, and many more. In 2017, AICTE announced that the institutes would be able to accredit themselves only if at least half of their programs are accredited.

Now, the NBA works on an online system of accreditation called Accreditation Workflow Management System (AWMS), which includes institution registration.

Benefits of Graduating from an NBA Accreditated Program

It ensures that the institution presents an excellent quality of education.
Employers value an accredited degree, and it helps in strengthening the consumer’s confidence.
Many countries only accept students whose institutional degree is NBA accredited.
It indicates quality not only in education but also in the morality and righteousness of an institution.

Visit the official website of the National Board of Accreditation for more information about the process.