How does NAAC grade help university and students of that university?

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) was established in 1994. NAAC accreditation is mandatory for all the higher learning institutes in India. Those institutes which are NAAC-accredited in India are eligible for UGC grants.
If there is no NAAC accreditation, universities will not get UGC grants, RUSA grants, financial aid etc. NAAC accreditation is an indication of the quality of the institute in terms of education, infrastructure, research, teaching & learning etc. Institutes with top NAAC grades such as 'A++', 'A+' and 'A' are being considered as the best institutes
Benefits of NAAC Accreditation for Institutions
1. NAAC accreditation helps the institutes to know its strengths, opportunities, and weaknesses.
2. The internal areas of planning and allocation of resources will also be identified.
3. NAAC accreditation will help the institute in getting funds from the funding agencies.
4. NAAC grade will help institutes to modernise methods of pedagogy.
Benefits to students:
1. In simple terms, NAAC accreditation will help the student to assess all the Institute for the quality of education, research output, teaching-learning, infrastructure etc.
2. NAAC grade helps students to choose the best institute
3. NAAC grade also determines the value of degree offered by the higher learning institutes
4. Better placement chances for the students studied in premier institutes with higher NAAC grading.

India is a big country and it has a large number of educational institutes imparting higher education. In such a situation it is necessary to assess the working and the capabilities of these institutes to get accredited with the bench mark performance.

In view of this the National Policy on Education (NPE, established in 1986) and the Programme of Action (PoA, established in 1992) brought out the need for an independent National accreditation agency to check the quality of higher education and its relevance in the respective institutes.

Following these developments, in 1994, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) was established as an autonomous institution under the University Grants Commission (UGC) with its head quarter in Bengaluru. The vision of this new body was stated as making quality assurance an integral part of the functioning of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in India.

NAAC comprises of a General Council (GC) and an Executive Committee (EC). These committees consist of educational administrators, policy makers and senior academicians from a cross-section of Indian higher education spectrum.

The Chairperson of UGC functions as the President of GC of NAAC and nominates the Chairperson of EC of NACC from among the eminent academicians. NACC also constitutes advisory and consulting committees time to time on need based.

NACC does detailed assessment of the educational institutes of all types like Universities (Central / State / Private / Deemed-to-be), Institutions of National Importance and
Autonomous colleges /Constituent Colleges / Affiliated Colleges (affiliated to universities recognised by UGC as an affiliating University).

It is to be noted that NACC does not do accreditation of the distance education units of HEIs and offshore campuses.

The final assessment of the NACC brings out the analysis of institutional Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Challenges. It also recommends quality enhancement suggestions for the institution.

NACC also takes feedback from the students and presents it along with its other analysis.

So, the main idea behind all this exercise is to assess the institutions and accredit them with the grade as found out in the accreditation study. This is very helpful in pushing the institutions to improve in certain areas and adopt the latest practices in education. Ultimately, students will only be benefited with the improvement in the institutions.