The IITs will have to go in for accreditation, a process that would add to their brand equity even as their autonomous status will be respected.
Though the process was announced a while ago, the groundwork was recently discussed in the 56th IIT Council meeting held in New Delhi. The IITs will now be accredited under the framework that excludes NAAC which accredits institutions offering degree programmes, including professional and vocational ones.
Instead, the IITs will be part of a uniform accreditation framework being set up by a National Accreditation Council which is expected to be formed under the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) in keeping with the NEP 2020 recommendations.
Discussing the impact of such a decision, Prof Suman Chakraborty, director, IIT Kharagpur (IIT-KGP), tells Education Times,
“Accreditation promotes a transparent and structured mechanism to benchmark academic quality, governance, and resource utilisation. Most globally ranked IITs already enjoy a strong reputation and access to reputed peer review processes. A formal accreditation system will help in making the institutes’ strengths more visible to the world through formal indices.”
He elaborates,
“The recent move is not only about rankings or perception, but also about aligning with best practices and ensuring consistent academic enrichment across the IIT system. While IITs have been recognised for the credibility of education and research, external validation will help reaffirm that credibility in a globally accepted framework.”
“The external accreditation could provide independent validation and may reassure stakeholders that quality is being examined in a transparent way. While the IITs have one of the strongest reputations among Indian institutions, at the same time, in the process of recruitment, it may not be evident or easy to validate the credibility of some processes,” says Prof Bhushan Patwardhan, former chairman, NAAC.
The IIT system has expanded in the last two decades. In 2000, there were seven IITs, which today has grown to 23. This growth has increased access and regional distribution, though many critics see it as a dilution to some extent in the brand value as well as in perception.
NAAC itself is currently facing challenges. Some IITs have suggested that such steps may remain patchwork responses rather than durable reforms, unless the HECI is implemented with adequate governance and resources.
The NAAC accreditation was not originally designed with the IITs in mind. It was established by the UGC and focuses on universities and colleges under the UGC framework.
“The IITs and IIMs, with their special governance structure backed by an Act of Parliament, did not fall within that mandate. The limited may have been that their peer-review mechanisms were adequate, and these were not easily assessed under NAAC’s purview. Since NEP 2020, however, the conversation has changed, and now HECI must incorporate a uniform national accreditation framework,” says Prof Patwardhan.
“As the higher education system evolves, it is natural that the IITs also align with a unified accreditation system, possibly under the new National Accreditation Council. IITs represent a different league as compared to other research institutions, and the review process could be multidimensional, assessing not just teaching and learning quality, academic impact, global rankings, international linkages. The aim would be to ensure that the review is more robust and academic rigor-intensive but also broader to reflect the ambition and vision of IITs in the nation-building and global engagement,” Prof Chakraborty adds.
The need for a uniform accreditation process has been felt for a while now because currently, in the absence of a formal process, all universities don’t have a uniform accreditation process. Having different processes creates difficulties for our graduates in overseas admission. One is missed in some countries.
This prompted the decision that all IITs would also go through an accreditation process.
“This is a welcome move,” says Prof Manindra Agrawal, director, IIT Kanpur, adding that a final framework would be decided by HECI in discussion with the IITs. Presently, the IITs conduct regular external peer review in which experts from diverse academic institutions are invited to review every department and programme.
“It works well since the group of experts are independent and highly respected,” Prof Agrawal says.
Published by : Education Times on 02/09/2025
.jpg)