Unique Indian Institutions Of Higher Learning Assessment: Naac's Experience And Learn From

India has developed its higher education greatly after its independence,the numbers of higher education institutions and college enrollment are growing rapidly. The rapid expansion of Indian higher education leads to its decline in the quality of higher education.In order to maintain and enhance the quality of higher education, India established the National Assessment and Accreditation Council(NAAC) in 1994, carrying out assessment and accreditation to India's universities and colleges.After fifteen years of development,NAAC has gone through four stages,from exploration to mature,from the most opposed to the generally agreed.In the process of development,NAAC perfected its grading system and assessment instrument,and developed the unique assessment model which is fit for the situation of India, integrating elements of the three common assessment models,namely,assessment, accreditation and audit.Considering the wide variations in quality levels of colleges and universities and their large numbers in the country,NAAC divided all the institutions into three categories:universities,autonomous colleges and affiliated colleges giving them differential weightages under each criterion,and assessed all kinds of institutions for the purposes of classification.From the results of the institutional assessment,the classification assessment is of feasibility and acceptability.Discussing with stakeholders,further collecting relevant documents and data,validating the claims made by the institutions in the SSR,calculating the institutional CGPA through the cumulative grade point average system,and preparing Peer-Team Report are several important tasks for peers in the course of on-site visit to the institution.Members of the peer team have to be skilled and high professional in order to ensure a better job and complete these tasks excellently,therefore,it is necessary for members to get strict professional training.The assessment of NAAC has promoted the construction of institutional culture of quality,and the construction of institutional culture of quality is a major component of the post-accreditation strategy,an effective way to maintain and enhance the quality of institutions.The construction of institutional culture of quality also relies on internal quality assurance cells of institutions,students and other stakeholders.India and China have lots of similarities.In addition to China,India is the world's most populous developing countries,a huge system of higher education,a longer history than that of our country in the construction of institutional assessment system,putting emphasis on the combination of internationalization and localization. its rich experience is worth learning from by China.Through the literature analysis and case study,the paper tries to discuss preliminarily the experience of classification assessment of HEIs in India and the problems encountered,from the point of view of culture;through the comparison of China and India,the paper sums up the unique aspects of NAAC institutional assessment,which may be useful for China's assessment of HEIs.China has just finished the first institutional assessment,and a new round of assessment is about to kick off.In order to ensure the specialization and standardization of our country's institutional assessment,the paper proposes that the Ministry of Education should develop the "National Cadre of Assessors" and give formal training to peers.In order to ensure the validity and credibility of our country's institutional assessment,we need to develop a reasonable assessment instrument and system of assessment indicators considering the actual situation of China's higher education.As for China,How to construct the institutional culture of quality? That is an original view of the paper.We can get some enlightenment from the experience of NAAC internal quality assurance cells of institutions and student participation.