New Binary Accreditation Model for higher education to launch soon: Sources

By Vishu Adhana
New Delhi [India], July 3 : The Ministry of Education will "soon" roll out a reformed accreditation system for higher education institutions (HEIs), replacing the existing eight-point grading structure with a simplified binary model, sources told ANI.
The move comes amid mounting concerns over the current accreditation system by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), including low participation of institutions, complex assessment requirements, and recent allegations of corruption.
As of now, only around 40 percent of India's degree-awarding institutions have been accredited.
In February this year, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested 10 individuals -- including NAAC inspection team members and officials of Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation (KLEF) -- in a bribery case linked to favourable accreditation.
When asked about the update on the new system, a senior official at the ministry said, "We are soon rolling out the binary accreditation system. The new system will categorise institutions simply as either 'Accredited' or 'Non-Accredited', doing away with the earlier complex grading structure." However, the official refused to mention a specific date.
The reform measures are based on recommendations submitted by a committee led by former ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan, constituted by the Education Ministry in November 2022 to overhaul the accreditation ecosystem.
Under the new model, institutions will be categorised as 'Accredited', 'Awaiting Accreditation' (for those near the threshold), or 'Not Accredited' (for those falling significantly short of standards).
Accredited institutions will then be encouraged to advance from Level 1 to Level 4 -- Institutions of National Excellence -- and ultimately to Level 5, envisioned as Institutions of Global Excellence for Multidisciplinary Research and Education, as outlined in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
In 2024, the Ministry of Education published a report on the new accreditation system, 'Reforms for Strengthening Assessment and Accreditation in Higher Education Institutions'.
In the report, it is mentioned that the binary tag will be valid for two years, following which institutions will be expected to shift to a maturity-based graded accreditation system, as per the report.
As per the report, the initial binary assessment will be based largely on self-declared data, with minimal external review and validation through Peer Data Validation (PDV) mechanisms. To qualify, institutions must have completed at least two years of existence and graduated at least one batch of students.
A centralised, technology-enabled portal is being developed to capture input-output metrics, aiming to reduce redundancy and increase transparency, the report mentioned.
As per the NAAC official website, only 419 universities and 6,846 colleges are accredited as of January 2025.
The upcoming revised accreditation framework is expected to bring a significantly larger number of institutions under the accreditation process by simplifying the existing system. The new structure is also designed to feed into a Choice-Based Ranking System, where users -- students, industries, or funding agencies -- can apply filters and assign weightages to rankings based on their specific priorities.