One Nation One Data: Empowering Higher Education With A Unified Data-Sharing Revolution
New Delhi, 21st June 2023: The ‘One Nation, One Data’ portal, designed to serve as a centralized data-sharing platform for higher education institutions in the country, is set to be launched in the upcoming academic session of 2023-24. The groundwork for this portal has already commenced and is considered a vital reform aimed at fortifying the assessment and accreditation system for colleges, universities, and other higher education institutes. It will facilitate the collection and sharing of data from various regulatory bodies through a single source.
An official familiar with the development stated that the groundwork for compiling and verifying data has already begun. The vast amount of data collected from different institutions and agencies are being cross-checked with the respective colleges and universities to ensure consistency, authenticity, and eliminate duplication.
The One Nation One Data (ONOD) platform will act as a unified online portal where higher education institutions can upload essential data, such as the number of students, faculty, infrastructure details, research projects, and placements. This information is required by various regulatory bodies for periodic assessments, rankings, and grading. The platform will simplify the data collection process, addressing the issue of institutions having to provide information multiple times a year on different portals. Institutions will no longer need to submit the same data repeatedly as it can be shared using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Any necessary additions can be made directly on the portal itself.
The data collected through ONOD will serve different purposes for various agencies. For example, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) can utilize it for granting approvals to colleges and institutes, the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) can use it for ranking purposes, and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) can employ it for accreditation and grading. The committee responsible for this endeavor is headed by Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe, chairperson of the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF), both established by the Ministry of Education (MoE).
The committee is also working towards rationalizing the data requirements of regulatory bodies, eliminating unnecessary sets of information, and ensuring that only essential data is submitted. To achieve this, the committee is engaging with members from these regulatory bodies to seek their input and consultations.
The proposal for ONOD is a significant reform recommended in the draft report titled ‘Transformative Reforms for Strengthening Periodic Assessment and Accreditation of all HEIs of India.’ The report was prepared by the Overarching Committee, formed by the Ministry of Education under the leadership of K Radhakrishnan, chairperson of the standing committee of IIT Council. The draft report was made public to solicit feedback from stakeholders, with the consultation period ending on June 22. The finalized report is expected to be released shortly thereafter. The existing grading system for higher education institutions, conducted by the NAAC, has faced allegations of irregularities earlier this year.
