Abstract—Estimation of the quality regarding higher education within a university is practically long drawn process besides being difficult to measure primarily due to lack of a standard scale. National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) evolved a methodology of assessment which involves self-appraisal by each university/college and an assessment of performance by an expert committee. The attributes involved in assessing a university may not be totally independent from each other thereby necessitating the consideration of interdependencies. The present study focuses on evaluation of assessment criteria using graph theoretic approach and fuzzy treatment of data collected from the students. The technique will provide a suitable platform to university management team to cross check assessment of education quality by considering interdependencies of the attributes using graph theory. Keywords—Graph theory, NAAC accreditation criteria, Indian University accreditation process. I. INTRODUCTION IGHER educational institutions have grown exponentially in India specifically in last two decades. One of the primary reasons is the manifold increase in the participation of private sector in higher education due to relaxation of government policies. Though it should have been a welcome step as a nation building exercise, the quality required from the passing students was in general a miss. With the proliferation of higher educational institutions, the responsibility was set on government to monitor the quality of educational institutions. Since the success achieved in life by a student is dependent on the quality of education received, hence monitoring the quality of education was required for sustenance and further improvement of educational quality. To address the issues of quality of higher education in India, the NAAC was established in 1994 with its headquarters at Bangalore. It is an autonomous body established by the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India to assess and accredit institutions of higher education in the country. NAAC has based its quality assessment of higher education Nameesh Miglani is presently registered as PhD Research Scholar at Sunrise University, Alwar, India. He is working as General Secretary of STEPS, an educational society (phone: +91 9310552336; e-mail: miglanin@gmail.com). Rajeev Saha is working as faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engg., YMCA University of Science and Technology, Faridabad, India (e-mail: rajeevsaha@gmail.com). R.S. Parihar is working as Registrar at Sunrise University, Alwar, India (e- mail: roopsinghp@gmail.com). institutions (HEIs) on 32 key aspects defined under seven major criteria. The key aspects specifically focus on the outcomes based on student learning and development. NAAC manual consists of set of questions based on key aspects to be asked from each HEI. The key aspects within criteria may depend on one another. Similarly, criteria may also affect each other. Thus, the issues addressed within the criteria and key aspects are closely inter-related and may appear to be overlapping. The criteria and the key aspects do not cover everything which happens in every HEI and hence may not be considered as set of standards or measurement tools by themselves. They are just taken as reference points for evaluating the quality of the institution under assessment. The interdependencies between the criteria and key aspects can be understood by forming directed graphs (digraphs) among them. These digraphs can then be quantified using a suitable scale to find University Education System Quality Index. II. LITERATURE REVIEW Since its inception, NAAC had been trying hard to promote the concept of quality amongst the Institutions of Higher Education. The functional aspects specifically pedagogy and administration of an institution has been greatly influenced by NAAC. The process followed by NAAC for quality measurement of an institution has shifted the onus on institutions themselves for its quality matters [1]. During the past ten years, NAAC has made significant progress in promoting quality assessment, quality sustenance and quality enhancement in HEIs of the country. Many policy makers at the centre as well as the states, educational administrators, practitioners in the field of education and various stakeholders have contributed to the development of the NAAC [2]. NAAC has been entrusted with the responsibility of Quality Assessment, Sustenance and Enhancement of HEIs in the country. The assessment and accreditation process has resulted in tremendous quality consciousness in institutions and has also created an awareness to deal with the emerging challenges of higher education [3]. Many countries consider accreditation as the best and the oldest known seal of collegiate quality. Its main objective is to provide quality improvement and quality assurance respectively. It is widely believed that it will bring self- regulation to achieve better results [4]. The book “Higher Education in India” stated that due to the A Graph Theoretic Approach for Quantitative Evaluation of NAAC Accreditation Criteria for the Indian University Nameesh Miglani, Rajeev Saha, R. S. Parihar H World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Vol:11, No:7, 2017 1905 International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 11(7) 2017 scholar.waset.org/1307-6892/10008006 International Science Index, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Vol:11, No:7, 2017 waset.org/Publication/10008006