NAAC accreditation for Yoga courses

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is all set to accredit the Yoga courses conducted in most colleges and universities of the country.

The accreditation body had recently asked the stakeholders’ feedback on Yoga accreditation programme, which is currently pending before the expert committee headed by H R Nagendra, Vice Chancellor of Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (VYASA) University.

Jagannath Patil, adviser, NAAC and convenor of Yoga programme accreditation, said the accreditation would bring in uniformity in the Yoga curriculum and retain original Yoga that India has contributed.

“To bring about harmonisation and standardisation in Yoga education, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), in 2016, formed the expert committee to work on the Yoga curriculum for the university education system. Now, there are more than 50 universities in the country and many stand-alone institutions offering yoga courses,” Patil told DH.

The national level framework on Higher Education programme in Yoga is ready with the committee.

The committee, which worked on the framework for seven months, has designed the curriculum for undergraduate, postgraduate and research levels. The committee has also planned for Global Summit on Yoga Accreditation by the end of April in the United Nations.

The committee had done the pilot study after receiving responses from stakeholders. The stakeholders included well-known Yoga schools, Yoga enthusiasts, yoga universities and others. Patil said, “After Yoga went overseas, a number of Yoga forms like Water Yoga and Beer Yoga came about.

The accreditation will help in recognising the genuine tradition. After the accreditation, genuine colleges which offer Yoga courses will get direct grants from University Grants Commission (UGC) and Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA).”