The ‘One nation, One data’ portal, a single-source of data sharing for higher education institutions in the country is ready for use from the new academic session 2023-24, groundwork on which has already begun, News18 has learnt. The portal is one of the crucial reforms to strengthen the assessment and accreditation system of colleges, universities and other institutes of higher education, allowing only one source of data collection and sharing by various regulatory bodies.
“Groundwork on the portal of data compilation and correction has already begun. There is humungous data and a major task is to compile all existing data given by different institutions to different agencies. The data is then being checked with the respective colleges and universities for any inconsistencies, authenticity and duplication,” said an official privy to the development.
One Nation One data (ONOD) is an online platform, which will act as a unified and single-source wherein all higher education institutions can upload their data on the number of students, faculty, infrastructure, research projects and placements, among others, that are required by various regulatory bodies for periodic assessments, ranking and grading. It will allow data simplification and hence address the issue by institutions at time of furnishing information on multiple portals and multiple times a year. With this, institutions will not be required to submit the same data again while it can be shared with API (Application Programming Interface). Any additions required can be made on the site itself, the official added.
The data can be used by different agencies for different purposes. For example, regulatory bodies such as All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) can use it for granting approvals to colleges/institutes, National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) can use it for according rankings, National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) can use the same for grading etc. The work is being done by a committee headed by Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe, chairperson, National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and National Educational Technology Forum (NETF) set up by the union Ministry of Education (MoE).
“We are also working on rationalising data, as in what all is required by regulatory bodies for according approvals, ranking and assessment while weeding out any unnecessary sets of information. The idea is to reduce the submission of data to only that is needed. Members from these regulatory bodies, who use the data, are being invited by the committee for consultations on the same,” the official said.
ONOD is one of the crucial reforms suggested in its draft report titled ‘Transformative Reforms for Strengthening Periodic Assessment and Accreditation of all HEIs of India’ by the Overarching Committee, set up last November by the MoE under K Radhakrishnan, chairperson, standing committee of IIT Council. The report was put in public domain seeking feedback from the stakeholders the period for which ends on June 22 while the finalised report is likely to be released soon after. The current grading system for HEIs carried out by the NAAC ran into allegations of irregularities in March this year.
Officials said that one of the major reasons for any gaps in the grading system was inconsistencies and duplication in data due to multiple agencies asking institutions for similar data at several points of time during a year, making it difficult to check its authenticity. The committee tasked with integration of data will be implementing the changes that will be recommended in the final report. “The finalised report is yet to come, after which the actual work will begin. At present, we are preparing a base for the same,” said a second official, not wishing to be named.
