AQAR stands for Annual Quality Assurance Report. It is a mandatory yearly report that every NAAC-accredited higher education institution in India must prepare and submit to NAAC, documenting institutional performance across the seven NAAC criteria for that academic year. AQAR is prepared by the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) and approved by the institution's statutory bodies (such as Syndicate, Governing Council, or Board) before submission.
Why AQAR matters
AQAR submission is a Minimum Institutional Requirement (MIR) for second, third, or subsequent NAAC accreditation cycles. An institution that fails to submit AQARs annually cannot apply for re-accreditation. Beyond compliance, AQAR is the institution's yearly self-assessment of progress against NAAC criteria — used by leadership to plan quality enhancement, by NAAC peer teams during assessment visits, and by institutional stakeholders to track year-on-year improvement.
What AQAR contains
AQAR follows NAAC's prescribed format and includes performance data across all seven NAAC criteria: Curricular Aspects, Teaching-Learning & Evaluation, Research Innovations & Extension, Infrastructure & Learning Resources, Student Support & Progression, Governance Leadership & Management, and Institutional Values & Best Practices. Specific Key Indicators within each criterion require quantitative data, narrative descriptions, and supporting evidence links.
AQAR format under DCF 2025
NAAC announced the Binary Accreditation Framework and Maturity-Based Graded Levels (MBGL) on February 10, 2025, replacing the legacy CGPA-based grading system. AQAR formats now align with NAAC's Data Capture Formats 2025 (DCF 2025). Institutions previously using the CGPA-era AQAR template must transition to the post-2025 format. Older AQARs in the legacy format remain valid as historical records but new submissions follow DCF 2025.
Who submits AQAR
The IQAC Coordinator typically owns AQAR drafting, with input from department heads, faculty, and administrative units. Final approval comes from the institution's statutory body before submission. AQAR can be hosted on the institution's IQAC microsite (NAAC encourages this) and is submitted to NAAC through the official portal. AQAR may also be incorporated into the institution's Annual Report.
When AQAR is due
AQAR for an academic year must be submitted within the timeframe specified by NAAC for that year. Late or missing AQARs disqualify institutions from subsequent accreditation cycles. Institutions are advised to begin AQAR data collection at the start of each academic year rather than scrambling at submission time — continuous data capture is now a core IQAC responsibility under the new framework.