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01 / 06IQAC team reviewing the NAAC student satisfaction survey format
Download the current questionnaire from naac.gov.in, share it with heads of department, and map each of the 20 items to an owner who can act on it.
Guide · Accreditation
For IQAC coordinators, principals and accreditation teams
The NAAC SSS questionnaire 20 questions cover syllabus coverage, teacher preparation, fairness of internal evaluation, mentoring, outcomes and ICT use, each scored from 4 down to 0, plus one open question. This guide is for IQAC teams who want to understand every item, brief students properly and run an internal practice survey before NAAC sends its own link.
- All 20 items in plain language
- How the 0 to 4 scale reads
- A 6-step IQAC preparation plan
- What NAAC runs and what your college runs
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20 scored questions1 open suggestion boxScale of 4 to 0Criterion IITeaching, learning, evaluationEnglish and Hindi versionsIdentity not revealedIQAC practice rounds
Quick answer
NAAC's published student questionnaire has 21 items: 20 closed questions with five options scored 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0, and one open question asking for three suggestions. It sits under Criterion II, Teaching, Learning and Evaluation, and opens with a short profile block on age, gender, programme and subject area.
Where the official format lives
If you searched for a format to download, use the PDF on the NAAC website rather than a copy from a forum. NAAC's own document is labelled as the student questionnaire for Key Indicator 2.7.1 in the version we checked in September 2026, and colleges should confirm against the current manual for their cycle because frameworks are revised. NAAC also lists English and Hindi versions.
Who actually runs the survey
For accreditation, the survey is administered by NAAC, which sends the link to students on the contact details the institution provided. A college cannot fill it on behalf of students, and it should not try to steer answers. What an IQAC can do is keep student contact data accurate, explain the purpose of the survey, and use its own internal feedback to fix problems long before the official round.
Profile block before Q1
- Confirms first and only attempt
- Age and college name
- Gender
- Degree programme
- Subject area
The 20 items
Paraphrased from NAAC's published questionnaire. Option 4 is always the most positive answer and 0 the most negative. Read the official PDF for exact wording.
| # | What the question asks | Scale runs from (4) to (0) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Share of the syllabus covered in class | 85–100% down to below 30% |
| 2 | How well teachers prepared for classes | Thoroughly down to not teaching at all |
| 3 | How well teachers communicated | Always effective down to very poor |
| 4 | Overall description of the teaching approach | Excellent down to poor |
| 5 | Fairness of internal evaluation | Always fair down to unfair |
| 6 | Whether assignment performance was discussed | Every time down to never |
| 7 | Support for internships, exchanges and field visits | Regularly down to never |
| 8 | Teaching and mentoring helping cognitive, social, emotional growth | Significantly down to not at all |
| 9 | Opportunities to learn and grow | Strongly agree down to strongly disagree |
| 10 | Being told expected competencies and course and programme outcomes | Every time down to never |
| 11 | Mentor follow-up on assigned tasks | Every time down to no mentor |
| 12 | Concepts illustrated with examples and applications | Every time down to never |
| 13 | Teachers spotting strengths and setting the right challenge | Fully down to unable to |
| 14 | Teachers spotting weaknesses and helping overcome them | Every time down to never |
| 15 | Students involved in monitoring and quality improvement | Strongly agree down to strongly disagree |
| 16 | Use of experiential, participative and problem-solving methods | Great extent down to not at all |
| 17 | Encouragement for extracurricular activities | Strongly agree down to strongly disagree |
| 18 | Building soft skills, life skills and employability | Great extent down to not at all |
| 19 | Share of teachers using ICT tools while teaching | Above 90% down to below 29% |
| 20 | Overall quality of the teaching-learning process | Strongly agree down to strongly disagree |
Checked against the NAAC student questionnaire PDF on naac.gov.in, September 2026.
Reading the items
The 20 items are easier to act on when you see them as five themes. Each theme points to a department or committee that can change something before students answer.
Q1 to Q4
Classroom delivery
Syllabus completion, preparation, communication and overall approach. These respond to academic calendars, timetable discipline and faculty workload, and a department head can track them every month.
Q5, Q6
Fair assessment
Whether internal marks feel fair and whether assignment feedback is discussed. Returning graded work with comments in class is the cheapest single fix in the whole questionnaire.
Q10 to Q14
Outcomes and mentoring
Students are asked if they know course and programme outcomes and whether a mentor follows up. Q11's lowest option is having no mentor, so an unassigned student scores zero there by design.
Q7, Q16 to Q18
Learning beyond the lecture
Internships, field visits, experiential methods, extracurriculars and employability skills. Evidence here usually already exists in the college; students simply may not connect it to teaching.
Q8, Q9, Q15, Q19, Q20
Institution-wide signals
Growth, opportunities, student participation in quality review, ICT use and overall quality. Q19 asks about the share of teachers using ICT, not whether smart rooms exist.
Our view on SSS preparation
IQAC plan
A preparation plan an IQAC coordinator can start one semester before the official survey window. None of it involves telling students how to answer.
02
02 / 06Coordinator cleaning student email and mobile records
Check that every enrolled student has a working email and mobile number in the institutional records. A survey link sent to a dead address is a missed response.
- Remove duplicates
- Confirm with class representatives
03
03 / 06Students filling an internal feedback form on a phone
Run an internal practice round using the same five themes and a 0 to 4 scale, anonymously, so the IQAC sees where scores are weak.
04
04 / 06Department heads reading feedback results by programme
Break results down by programme and year. A college average hides a single department where assignments are never discussed.
05
05 / 06Faculty meeting agreeing fixes for weak survey items
Pick two or three actions per weak item, for example mentor allocation lists for Q11 or a feedback day for Q6, and record them in IQAC minutes.
06
06 / 06Class orientation explaining the survey to students
Explain what the SSS is, that identity is not revealed, and that the link comes from NAAC. Ask students to answer honestly and to check spam folders.
Templates
Use these when you build your own feedback form. It should mirror the themes of the official questionnaire without pretending to be it.
Form design
- Same 0 to 4 scale, highest option most positive
- Group items by the five themes above
- One open question for three suggestions
- No name, roll number or phone field
- Hindi and English versions if students need them
Running the round
- Share link by class, not by faculty member
- Allow mobile completion; most students answer on phones
- Keep it open for a fixed window
- Track response rate by programme, not by student
- Close the round and publish a short action note
Using the results
- Report the share scoring 3 or 4 per item
- Read every open comment, then theme them
- Compare semesters on the same items
- Attach actions to IQAC minutes
- Keep raw responses per your retention policy
Mistakes
Low scores usually come from gaps students experience every week: syllabus left incomplete, assignments returned without discussion, no named mentor, and outcomes never explained. Poor contact data also lowers participation. Pressuring students or filling forms for them is unethical and can damage the institution's credibility with NAAC.
Common mistakes in practice rounds
The internal survey collects names, so students give polite answers and the IQAC learns nothing. Or the form is sent by the teacher being rated. Or results are averaged across the whole college, so a weak programme disappears into a decent overall number.
- Collecting identity in a satisfaction survey
- Faculty distributing forms about themselves
- Reporting only a college-wide mean
- Running the round once, the week before accreditation
- Ignoring open-ended comments
What a NAAC SSS format download will not tell you
The PDF gives the questions. It does not tell you which department is behind a low score or what changed since last semester. That needs repeated internal feedback with the same items, broken down by programme, which is where a feedback tool helps and where paper forms become slow to tabulate.
Not the right fit if
- Filling or submitting NAAC's official survey for students
- Influencing how students answer the official SSS
- Guaranteeing an SSS score or accreditation grade
- Providing a direct integration with NAAC's portal
A good fit if
- Anonymous internal feedback rounds on phones
- Programme-wise and semester-wise result dashboards
- Hindi and English forms from one template
- Parent, alumni and employer feedback alongside students
NAAC SSS software
Run anonymous student feedback that mirrors SSS themes, with IQAC-ready summaries.
Learn moreCollege feedback system
Course, faculty and facility feedback from students, parents and alumni.
Learn moreNBA accreditation feedback
Stakeholder feedback for outcome-based accreditation in engineering programmes.
Learn moreNIRF and AISHE data collection
Collect institutional data for rankings and national higher education returns.
Learn moreFAQ
Straight answers to the questions people ask most about this topic.
How many questions are in the NAAC SSS?
NAAC's published student questionnaire has 21 questions. Twenty are closed questions with five options scored from 4 for the most positive answer to 0 for the most negative. Question 21 is open-ended and asks the student for three observations or suggestions on teaching and learning. A short profile block on age, gender, programme and subject area comes before question 1.
Where can I download the NAAC SSS format?
Use the student questionnaire PDF published on the NAAC website at naac.gov.in, which is the authoritative source. NAAC also lists a Hindi version. Avoid copies circulated on file-sharing sites, since frameworks are revised between cycles and older versions may differ from what your institution will actually face during assessment.
Can a college fill the SSS on behalf of students?
No. The survey is meant to capture each student's own view, and NAAC sends the link to students directly. A college can keep contact records accurate and explain the purpose of the survey. Filling or steering responses defeats the survey and risks the institution's credibility during accreditation.
Is an internal practice survey useful?
Yes, if it is anonymous, uses the same themes and scale, and is repeated each semester. It shows which programmes score low on items such as assignment discussion or mentor follow-up while there is still time to act. A single round in the final week mostly measures nerves rather than teaching quality.
Does Bharat Survey connect to the NAAC portal?
No. Bharat Survey runs your institution's own feedback rounds and reports; it does not submit data to NAAC or access the official survey. Use it to collect student, parent and alumni feedback, then use the findings in your IQAC work and self-study report narrative as your team sees fit.
India Nationwide, Hindi-first
Tell us your programmes, student count and languages. We will suggest a feedback form structure and reporting format for your IQAC.