NAAC-bribery case: KLEF debarred from applying for accreditation for 5 years
This comes a week after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested three top officials of KLEF in the case
New Delhi: The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), the autonomous accreditation body for higher education institutes, has debarred Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation (KLEF) in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, for five years from applying for certification on Saturday.
This comes a week after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested three top officials of KLEF in the case pertaining to allegations of bribes being paid to secure an A++ rating for KLEF in Andhra Pradesh during a NAAC inspection.
The federal agency said that KLEF officials sought favourable accreditation by bribing NAAC inspection committee members. “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 5 years from applying for accreditation,” the NAAC said in a press statement on Saturday.
The council also debarred the seven members of its inspection committee, who were arrested last week by the CBI in a bribery case, from further visits to higher educational institutions for evaluation.
The NAAC will review recent higher education institutions (HEI) visits by these seven members, withholding results until a critical review is conducted. “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.
The CBI has till now arrested 10 individuals, including NAAC inspection committee chairman Samarendra Nath Saha, (vice-chancellor, Ramchandra Chandravansi University), committee members Rajeev Sijariya (professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University), Gayathri Devaraja (professor, Davangere University), M Hanumanthappa (professor, Bangalore University) and three office-bearers of KLEF --- vice chancellor GP Saradhi Varma, vice-president Koneru Raja Hareen and KL University’s Hyderabad campus director A. Ramakrishna --- in the corruption case.
Established in 1994, the NAAC evaluates the quality of education and infrastructure in universities and colleges using a grading system based on a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) from 1.51 to 4.00 and grades them for five years on a scale from A++ to C, while a D signifies no accreditation.
Under the existing Revised Accreditation Framework (RAF), NAAC inspection committees, composed of academic experts from various universities, conduct physical assessments of institutes and send the assessment report to NAAC within two days of their visit to the institutes.
In line with the recommendations of the Radhakrishnan Committee’s report, NAAC will launch the ‘Basic (Binary) Accreditation’ in April-May 2025. It will be followed by Maturity-based Graded Levels (MBGL).
“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 professor Anil D Sahasrabudhe told HT.
Sahasrabudhe 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. “By using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, we will cross-verify the data submitted by institutions.”
Higher education institutions applying for the NAAC accreditation for the second time and beyond can retain their existing grades until the new system is launched, while first-time applicants will have the option to transition to ‘Basic (Binary) Accreditation’ or proceed under the existing RAF through an online mode for colleges and a hybrid approach for universities.