The National Assessment and Accreditation Council's (NAAC) Executive Committee decided on Jan 28 to implement major reforms to its accreditation process. In the first stage, a "binary accreditation system" will be implemented in the next four weeks, replacing the current system of ranking higher education institutions (HEIs) from C to A++.

According to the NAAC, the new binary accreditation system is in line with the best practices followed globally. The NAAC said in a release that rather than grades, the new system will encourage all the institutions to get “on-boarded” in the accreditation process, thereby creating a quality culture in the higher education system. No new applications will be accepted as per the present methodology after four months. “Institutions that have already applied and are applying in the next four months shall have the option to either go by the present process or by the new methodology of binary accreditation,” the release said.

The current ranking system is based on the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) achieved by an institution.

The second stage of the reforms is the implementation of "Maturity-based Graded Accreditation," which will take effect by December 2024. This system will have five levels (Levels 1–5), and accredited institutions will be able to advance from 'Level 1' to 'Level 4' as Institutions of National Excellence, and then to 'Level 5' as Institutions of Global Excellence for Multi-Disciplinary Research and Education. "The levelled accreditation shall enable Indian institutions to significantly improve their quality and position themselves among global top institutions," the National Assessment and Accreditation Council said.