INTRODUCTION:

Accreditation:

It is a collegial and formal process to verify and subsequently certify an organization's (public or private in any sector) quality standards through the critical auditing procedures to confirm the eligibility due to meeting conformity¹

The solemn purpose of accreditation is to improve academic or service quality and public accountability. The accreditation process occurs between every 3-5 years of span subject to rules and regulations of the certification body. There is also a yearly renewal process in case of private accreditation by the few international accreditation organizations. Institutional accreditation certification helps parents to know the academic quality of the institution by ensuring its rank and the overall standard by identifying the programs or courses they offered. The assurance of meeting the quality standards developed by the accreditation senior management team in that field and that is implemented by the audit experts employed in the certification body or other third parties ^2-4.

1. Accreditation criteria:

1.1. Education parameters ^9-12:

Accreditation team must keep in mind the following parameters:

· How many types of academic programs that the institution have? Publicly available?

· How many semesters does the institution conduct yearly basis as per the list? Are details given online?

· How many primary and core courses are there? E-Brochure for courses in detail?

· Is there all curriculum, fees structure mentioned for each course.?

Accessible education and transparency:

· The accreditation team must check that all fees should be feasible and rational for all classes of people.

· Hassle-free fee payments for offline and payment gateway for online mode.

· The team must observe that the admission process, along with proper examination policy, has been written clearly.

· Direct admission, if any, must be transparent but not be any favoritism policy.

1.2. The infrastructure parameters ^4,6,8:

The critical aspect of the design of the building is that it should accommodate the user's needs, withstand climatic conditions. If there is two or more adjacent building for an education institution, then there must be a gap of 3mt to avoid multiple collapses know as Domino effect. The design of the building should be such a way that it is symmetrically spread on the plan, and lateral load is avoided from all directions.

While growing buildings, using toxic material should be avoided. The team should get test reports of sand soil, water, cement, etc. which are somehow rich in Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC). Hence, unwanted, substandard materials and chemical uses should be avoided. Building material specially used in institutions building constructions that should comply with the official technical specification used in local administration organization (LAO) for performance and development review (PDR) ^6,8.

LAO and PDR following international standards are used, ASTM- American society for testing and materials,

TIS-Thai industrial standard.

Small scale Units:^5,7

Although in other industries or sectors are also somehow mandated to follow the respective government policies. They are supposed to deliver global quality products assuring international standards informally. Food companies, including small scale industries, must comply with the entire manufacturing and distribution network as per food safety laws. The ultimate objective in the current trend is to meet the buyers' choice, the satisfaction which is reflected through online or physical feedback/review process ⁵. Rural entrepreneurship is also focussed on encouraging more rural industries to grow up, such as fishing, poultry farming ⁷, cotton/jute bags, home-based designs, and boutique works by homemakers located at various villages in the country like India, Bangladesh⁷.

Positions of departments and Amenities:^8-12

The audit team also screens quality and durability, and these two parameters are the fundamental pillars of the foundation. The type of foundation should be selected in the early planning process, as it will influence the overall building architect. The position of a classroom is very significant, questioning like 'where the chemistry lab should be located.' Proper ventilation facilities must be there due to the use of various chemicals. In the case of primary schools, nursery and elementary classes should always be housed on the ground floor for the safety of kids. The orientation of the window must be such a way that there should be proper passing of light and air. An adequate amount of space must be there for the playground/play zone.

Furniture and other materials:^10,12

Furniture and institutions' study materials or building properties should be maintained properly. The height of the wall, glass-made windows, classroom items should be adapted by keeping in mind the height of the students.

Sports and grounds:^14-17

In the case of games and other recreational activities, the ground should be attached to the academic buildings. The particular place must be there for primary students and seniors class wise.

The recommended field size or capacity for football, basketball, handball, volleyball is

Table.1. Familiar games practiced and played in the standard institutions (schools/colleges)¹⁷

Type of Game	Capacity as per court/ground	Length	Width
Badminton	Single player-each side	44 ft.	17 ft.
Basketball	In group	94 ft.	50 ft.
Cricket	In group	20 meter.	3 meter.
Table Tennis	Board size	9 ft.	5 ft.
Football/Soccer	In group	45 meter.	90 meter.
Volleyball	In group	18 meter.	9 meter.

1.3. Safety and security parameters ^10-15

1.3.1. Sanitization:

Hygiene maintenance in an educational institution is essential. The separate toilet should be there for boys and girls, including pour-flush systems with regular cleanliness. Privacy, cleanliness, safety are three primary parameters that should be kept in mind while planning toilets. Every wing should have a separate washroom. Proper sewage and drainage system must be there.

1.3.2. Fire safety:

Fire safety measures are one of the primary reasons because of thousands of kids or other students in the institutions are present during study hours. Desk, chairs, tables are made up of highly combustible materials like woods, plastics. The chemistry lab is a high-risk zone as it contains flammable liquids. In case fire catches in these places, then the situation can go out of control. Another part that the audit team must check the location of the kitchen, which is another dangerous place as there are gas cylinders. Hence fire exits, alarm stations, stairways should be clean and adequately checked every day. The alarm helps the students and all staff to exit safely without hindrance in an emergency.

1.4. Board of Management and Major Departments:^13-16

1.4.1. Administration and Operation management:

Members of the operation management team act as a core team that holds an organization together. This team is responsible for entire operational work to run an organization by operating all the departments apart from budget making, strategy planning. Similarly, the admin team looks after the central part of the institution for all kinds of administrative works.

1.4.2. Teaching management:

This team includes all academic and non-scholastic teaching staff, who are the backbone of any educational institution. Teaching staff should be appropriately qualified as per norms set by the governing body¹³.

1.4.3. Recruitment:

Team members of recruitment look after the recruitment parts whether to appoint teaching members or non-teaching staff. More ever, the entire recruitment process is followed by the concerned team only.

1.4.4. Health and sanitization management:

Every education institution should have trained health staff, who can provide immediate medical aid in case of emergency. Proper sanitization is yet another essential aspect that should be kept in mind by all industries or service people. Housekeeping staff must clean all floors at regular intervals¹⁸.

2. Accreditation bodies and role^18,20:

This team consist of a chairperson and along with four experts as faculty members/admin in general. The accreditation process is thoroughly monitored, reviewed, and assessed by the skilled, experienced academicians/experts who are called auditor duly assigned for this auditing.

2.1. Role of auditor^18-22:

Auditors are playing significant and severe roles in these jobs. They do rigorous auditing through inspection, verifications, assessments, and reevaluation to make institution management able to achieve the accreditation of the certificate. They provide an independent asset to the company risk management efforts, which ensure that the organization complies with all the relevant laws and regulations finally to qualify accreditation.

2.2. Accreditation by Government bodies:^20-23

2.2.1. Ministry of human resource (UGC)-It is an apex body that approves all the universities in the country.

2.2.2. AICTE:

It stands for the All India Council for Technical Education. It established the NBA-National board of accreditation.NBA regularly evaluates all technical institutions and programs offered by the institutions. Offered programs should be based on specified guidelines and norms.

2.2.3. NABET:

National accreditation board for education and training. It provides accreditation to education organizations, vocational training institutions. NABET over-views the educational institution's entre framework and its holistic education programs.

2.2.4. National Assessments and Accreditation Council (NAAC):

The council is the first accreditation body in India to certify with the specific grade as institute qualifies based upon their quality of education, total management, and amenities standards. Examples like NAAC A-grade, B-grade, etc.

2.3. Private Accreditation:

Private accreditation is equally important and valuable, like government accreditation certification. This type of certification can be accessed quickly, not only in the respective country but internationally. Once any institute applies for the accreditation, private accreditation organize quickly respond to further processing and send an audit team to assess and evaluate the overall quality of management and entire operations to certify their standard. Finally, the institute gets accredited after going through critical assessments, reviews, and evaluations successfully. The whole process usually gets faster than any government organization for any country ^24,25.

2..3.1. International Accreditation Organisation (IAO): There is very few international accreditation companies or third parties organization available, but International Accreditation Organisation (IAO) is very much reputed. Ther reputation due to their best quality auditing process keeping in mind precise evaluation in the educational sector and that generally accomplished within the short period. This review article mainly concerns about institutional accreditation; hence we have been discussing that precisely. As per recent studies, IAO is a more than 20 years old accreditation organization operates above a hundred countries and already accredited five hundred institutions to universities tentatively so far along with the systematic renewals. They have a robust presence of their services in European countries, Australia, Africa in addition to own headquarter the United State of America by various global chapters. IAO has been leading accreditation services in the middle east and SAARC countries, including India, for decades with the help of skilled cum experienced chapter members who are assigned as city-wise auditors. They have a very fair and systematic evaluation process for accreditation from Montessori schools to University level and in the same way from any engineering to medical colleges, including vocational training centers. They have specific accreditation procedures for I.T., business, legal in addition to exceptional educational accreditation services. Moreover, they are easily reachable due to multiple contact windows like live chat, emails, or direct phone calls from any part of the world. The integrity and total quality cum speedy evaluation process with very affordable fee make them a global leader as a best private international accreditation organization in the world²⁵.

2.3.2. There are other accreditation bodies like i) Higher Learning Accreditation Consultant and Training H.Q based in the United Kingdom, ii) Agency for Science and Higher Education, H.Q Croatia iii) Confederation of International Accreditation Commission found at the USA, operates mainly African countries. Our study reviews that except for HLACT, no other have networking or accreditation services so far. However, as on date, IAO is playing the leading role with its prompt and versatile facilities in the majority of the countries, including India. There are some other international bodies like SGS, TUV, DNV, and BSI, QCI, from India²⁶.

3. Effect of Covid-19 outbreak in recent days ^29,30:

Covid-19 or Corona Virus severely affected not only various industries and total economy but also entire education systems globally since K.G. to P.G. All schools, colleges, universities remain closed for an indefinite period till the situation under control. The only way to protect from viral infections is to stay at home, keeping safe physical and social distancing ²⁹. Virtual classes are going on, but the question is the proper educational quality, whether meeting or not. The majority of essential classes and examinations are under suspensions until further notices³⁰. The situations overall have created an uncertain future for the post-secondary students considering their pending exams and further continuation of higher studies to get jobs or other bright carriers. In these moments, accreditation services also postponed by the Institution’s management as well as the accreditation team, both sides due to phase-wise lockdown and unsecured unlocking phases ^28-30.

4. Summary of the accreditation process (generalized):

Table.1: Accreditation matrix

Sl. No	Matrix	Requisite documents
	Organization management
1	Operational status	1. Year of establishment documents
2	vision	2. Web portal link 3. Offline publication documents
3	Board and Management members	1. Numbers of management and board members to identify. Hierarchy flow chart to present in both online and offline. 2. Qualification certificate 3. Appointment paper
4	Building and campus including hostels	1. No. of buildings and number of hostels. 2. Area coverage of building with proper site plan and construction details. 3. Registration certificate of the building 4. Fire and safety certificate 5. Water certificate 6. Tax certificate
5	Playground	1. Amount of area allocated for the playground. 2. The area plan must show a different play zone for primary and seniors students, preferably on the campus.
6	The integrity of the institute	1. Does it have a code of conduct? 2. Institute is involved under any litigation 3. Public interaction format of the institution
7	Safety management	1. Disaster management plan format 2. Students record maintaining the format
8	Administration resources management	1. Does the institution have the proper set up for the library, medical emergency room, research setup, subject of science libraries?
9	H.R policy	1. list of H.R. staff 2. Educational documents 3. List of H.R. policy that is enforced
10	Anti-grievance cell	Does the institution have an anti-grievance cell, list of members in that cell with educational documents?
11	Marketing	Marketing strategy used
	Academic Management
1	Programs	1. List of academic programs institution offered (as per the category of institute/school) 2. Total numbers of the semester each program is divided or not. 3. List of core courses, core, general courses
2	Curriculum	1. Are all courses updated course? 2. The course list is available in the booklet? 3. Is the booklet revision done regularly? 4. Online course update is there?
3	Admissions	1. Process of admission and transparency. 2. Any written exam conducted or any other process 3. Seat reservation policy details. 4. scholarship details.
4	Fees	1. Fees breakup of each course list. 2. Online fee portal link. 3. Offline fees challan
5	Faculty	1. List of faculty under each course 2. Educational qualification of faculties

CONCLUSION:

International accreditation certification is a value-added certificate which can create a global prestige and a high level of standing in the respective category of work or business. Institutional international accreditation is very important to boost up confidence for both students and their parents due to assured-quality standards of education maintained by various departments of the management board. International accreditation by private or autonomous certificate bodies can be well accepted due to less time-consuming process apart from global level accreditation with flexible fees and transparent auditing. Moreover, the regional students from developing counties like India can get better global exposure because of competent cum quality study methods maintained by accredited institutes.

REFERENCES:

1. International Accreditation Service. www.iasonline.org. Accessed on June 27th, 2020.

2. Jagadeesh, R., Improvement of quality of higher education in engineering sciences with emphasis on international aspects. The Indian J. of Tech. Educ .2000; 23(3): 43-47.

3. Engineering Accreditation Commission. Engineering Criteria: Criteria for accrediting engineering programs (effective for evaluation during the 2004-2005 accreditation cycle). Baltimore: Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET-2003). www.abet.org. Accessed on June 25th, 2020.

4. Van Damme, D., Trends and models in international quality assurance and accreditation in higher education in relation to trade in education services. OECD/US Forum on Trade in Educational Services, Washington, DC, USA, 2002; 1-51.

5. Banerjee S. Role of Food Companies to Supply Nutritious Foods as per Buyers Changing Lifestyles, Buying Habits, and the Recent Trends. Int J Innov Res Sci Eng Technol. 2020;9 (3):1062-1067. doi:10.15680/IJIRSET.2020.0903127

6. Irandoust, S., Nicklasson, C. and Sjöberg, J. Do national quality audits enhance quality at the institutional level? Experience from Chalmers University of Technology. Proc. 2nd Global Congress on Engng. Educ., Wismar, Germany.2000; 261-263.

7. Banerjee S. Broiler Poultry Farming is a Methodical Rural Business: A Case Study in Basirhat, West Bengal. Int J Res Manag Soc Sci. 2018;6(1):77-86.

8. Markusik, S., Sajdak, C. and Pudlowski, Z. J. Reflections on the accreditation process in Polish technical universities. Proc. 8th Baltic Region Seminar on Engng. Educ., Kaunas, Lithuania. 2004; 39-43.

9. Asian Accreditation Accord (AAA). http://www.nba-aicte.ernet.in/ nba-aicte/aaa.htm. Accessed on June 25th, 2020.

10. National Board of Accreditation (NBA). http://www.nba-aicte.ernet.in. Accessed on June 25th, 2020.

11. Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation (APLAC). http://www.aplac.org. Accessed on June 25th, 2020.

12. International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ). http://www.ianz.govt.nz/index.htm. Accessed on June 26th, 2020.

13. Banerjee S. Uses of technologies and social media for diet and exercise awareness among obese, hypothyroid, and pre-diabetic women–A case study in West Bengal. J Xi'an Univ Archit Technol. 2020;12(3):4682-4688. doi: https://doi.org/10.37896/ JXAT12.03/426.

14. Joint Accreditation System for Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ), http://www.jas-anz.com.au/showpage.php. Accessed on June 26th, 2020.

15. Besterfield-Sacre, M., Shuman, L.J. and Wolfe, H., Modelling undergraduate engineering outcomes. Inter. J. of Engng. Educ.2002;18 (2):128-139.

16. Anderson, D., Johnson, R., and Milligan, B. (Eds). Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Australian Higher Education: an Assessment of Australian and International Practice. Canberra: Department of Education, Training, and Youth Affairs (DETYA). 2000. Accessed on June 26th, 2020.

17. Dimensions of the sports courts. www.quickgs.com. Accessed on June 28th, 2020.

18. Banerjee S. Dietary supplements market in India is rapidly growing-An Overview. IMS Manag J. 2018;10(1):1-6.

19. Medrano, C.T., Ube, M., Plaza, I. and Blesa, A. The tools of quality in electronic engineering education. European J. of Engng. Educ. 2002; 27(4): 325-337.

20. Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), Accreditation Policy, and Procedure Manual. Baltimore: Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) 2003, http://www.abet.org. Accessed on June 26th, 2020.

21. Patil, A.S. and Pudlowski, Z.J, Strategies for international accreditation and recognition of engineering and technology education in the Asia-Pacific region. Proc. 4th Global Congress on Engng. Educ., Bangkok, Thailand, 2004. 301-304.

22. Wellington, P., Thomas, I., Powell, I. and Clarke, B., Authentic assessment applied to engineering and business undergraduate consulting teams. Inter. J. of Engng. Educ. 2002.18(2): 168-179.

23. Scott, G. and Yates, K.W., Using successful graduates to improve the quality of undergraduate engineering programmes. European J. of Engng. Educ.2002; 27(4): 363-378.

24. Patil, A.S. and Pudlowski, Z.J., The globalization of the Indian economy: a need for the internationalization of higher technical education. World Trans. on Engng. and Technology Educ., 2, 3, 367-372 (2003).

25. International Accreditation Organisation (IAO). http://www.iao. org. Accessed on June 26th, 2020.

26. Higher Learning Accreditation Consultant and Training. HLACT.UK. http://www.hlact.org.Accessed on June 27th, 2020.

27. Ensure HOWTO, Being S.W., Media S, For AS, Read S, Quarantine D. How to Ensure During Covid-19 Top 5 Books Students. Published online, 2020. Accessed on June 30th, 2020.

28. World Health Organization. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): Situation Report – 38. February 27th, 2020. Accessed at Retrieved February 28th, 2020.

29. Banerjee S, Srivastava S, Giri AK. Possible nutritional approach to cope with COVID-19 in Indian perspective. Adv Res J Med Clin Sci. 2020;06(06):207-219.

30. Banerjee S, Samaddar B. Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Overweight Typically Managed by Easy Diet Planning- A Mini-Review. Int J Technol. 2020;10(1):19-22.

31. Viswanadhan, K.G., Rao, N.J. and Mukhopadhyay, C., A prediction of the accreditation status of engineering programmes in India: a logistic regression approach. World Trans. On Engng. and Technology Educ., 3, 2, 195-198 (2004)

Received on 08.07.2020 Modified on 14.07.2020

Asian Journal of Management. 2020;11(3):279-284.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2020.00043.8