How colleges in India bribe assessors to get higher grades

One day, around two years ago, Raghav D, a newly recruited assistant professor at a government college in Delhi, was summoned to the principal’s office. There, he was handed an envelope.

Raghav had a guess for what was in it – and he was right. The envelope contained Rs 5 lakh.

The principal instructed him to hand over the money to three members of an assessment committee from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, who were on an inspection visit to the college. As part of the process of assessing colleges on metrics such as infrastructure, curricula and teaching, the central government body sends inspection committees to verify information that colleges submit to the council before assigning them grades.

Raghav, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym in this story, was puzzled that he had been chosen for the task, given that he was new at the college. But the principal explained his rationale.

“The principal told me that if he went to meet the NAAC officials in person, they would push him to cough up more money,” he said. “But the NAAC officials would not be able to do that with me, so it was a better bet to send me.”

As he was directed, Raghav proceeded to...

Read more