Accreditation is a process of evaluation of higher education institutions and programs. It is a voluntary process and business schools decide if they should get their institute or program accredited. The accreditation indicates that the institute and its programs adhere to high standards of quality. Various factors which go into accreditation process are student to faculty ratio, faculty qualification, infrastructure facilities, number of books, placement performance and so on.
Importance of Accreditation
1) Accreditation ensures that the bschool continuously improves its processes and curriculum to satisfy the industry demand and ensure highest level of quality standards.
2) Some recruiters also put a lot of emphasis on accreditation. So if your mba institute is accredited then it would become easier for you attract certain type of recruiters
How to check accreditation status of a business school in India
1) Visit schools website and check mandatory disclosure. This document is supposed to carry all the relevant information for a program.
2) You can visit the website accrediting agency. There are two such bodies in India - National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) and National Board for Accreditation (NBA)
3) Accreditation is provided only for a span of 3-5 years. So do ensure that accreditation is still valid.
4) NAAC provides accreditation for a period of 5 years. It provides accreditation to institutions and departments.
5) NBA provides accreditation to for a period of 2 years to technical institutes.
Another important factor to consider while applying to business schools is whether the school is approved by AICTE. Most of the reputed institutes in India are approved by AICTE. AICTE also maintains the status of accreditation of a school.
Accreditation in itself is not sufficient to indicate that one institute is better than the other. But in the absence of any other parameter to compare the schools, it is a good starting point.