NAAC debars 7 panel members permanently, KLEF for 5 years

Following allegations of KLEF officials bribing to NAAC inspection members to secure an A++ rating for the university, CBI arrested 10 people

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has debarred Guntur-based Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation (KLEF) for five years, officials said on Saturday, a week after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested three officials of the institution in a bribery case for favorable accreditation.

The NAAC said that the visits of last one year will be carefully analysed and put up to executive committee for further necessary action. (Representational image)

The autonomous accreditation body has also debarred the seven members of its inspection committee, who were also arrested, for a lifetime from assessment, saying it will review their recent visits to higher education institutions.

“Executive committee (EC) of NAAC has decided that the current accreditation process of involved university in the CBI case is summarily cancelled, and the University will be debarred for five years from applying for accreditation,” NAAC said in a statement on Saturday.

“In addition, it is decided that the visits of last one year will be carefully analysed and put up to EC for further necessary action,” NAAC said.

Following allegations of KLEF officials bribing to NAAC inspection members to secure an A++ rating for the university, CBI arrested 10 people, including NAAC inspection committee chairman Samarendra Nath Saha, and KLEF office bearers including vice chancellor GP Saradhi Varma, vice-president Koneru Raja Hareen and KL University’s Hyderabad campus director A Ramakrishna.

Meanwhile, in line with the recommendations of the Radhakrishnan Committee’s report for strengthening the assessment and accreditation processes, NAAC is set to launch the Basic (Binary) Accreditation later this year, which will be followed by Maturity-based Graded Levels (MBGL).

Key recommendations of the panel led by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Radhakrishnan include reducing reliance on physical visits, adopting digital validation, implementing binary accreditation, and creating a “One Nation One Data Platform” for data integrity and transparency.

“Under the ‘Basic (Binary) Accreditation’, universities and colleges meeting the minimum basic required benchmarks on 50-odd parameters including infrastructure, learning, startup ecosystem etc will be called accredited institutions and those not meeting the benchmarks will be called ‘not accredited.’ Under the MGBL, institutions will be marked on level 1 to 5 based on their improvements over the years and meeting certain benchmarks. We will come up with the framework and methodology for MBGL soon,” NAAC’s executive committee chairman Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe said on Saturday.

He also said the council will implement IT-based features in the new accreditation system under which physical inspection of higher education institutes by the inspection committee for data verification will soon be made digital.