Colleges Brace up to Improve NAAC Grade in Order to Avail Grants From Centre and State Govt.

NAAC is an autonomous institution established by the UGC in 1994. The prime agenda of NAAC is to assess and accredit institutions of higher learning with all objectives of helping them to work continuously to improve the quality of education. The top-notch colleges are accredited grade A by NAAC.

Recently BD College an integral part of Pataliputra University in Patna is gearing up for the second round of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) gradation in May-June 2024 as the college was accredited grade B in 2014.

NAAC's directing committee, chairman of the college, and principal prof Sanjay Kumar stated that the internal quality assurance cell ( IQAC ) held a meeting to notice that the new guidelines prepared by NAAC are on the right schedule. Various management departments have been set up to take care of ragging, sexual harassment, student grievance, women empowerment, and students grievance cells for the good sake of 600 students.

Talking about other states, only one out of three colleges affiliated with Mumbai University (MU) are accredited by NAAC, It is also estimated that 50% of its 791 affiliated colleges also require assessment by NAAC which is very important to get academic autonomy and central funding. We would also like to mention statistics of other universities affiliated with NAAC.

• Shivaji University (Kolhapur), though has fewer affiliated COLLEGES (283), but 60 % of these colleges are accredited by NAAC.
• MUMBAI UNIVERSITY (MU) has 35 % of colleges accredited by NAAC.
• Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has 21% of 882 colleges accredited by NAAC.
• Nagpur has only 22% accredited colleges by NAAC.

Under the new guidelines set by NAAC, colleges will have to prepare themselves as per the required parameter for inspection by the NAAC peer team peer. NAAC has introduced a new grading system that constitutes grades like A++, A+, A, B++, B+, B, C, and D. Under the new ground rule of NAAC, a college securing 2.5 CGPA in grade B is competent to avail assistance in form of grants both from the center and state govt.

A higher official in the NAAC dept stated that it will be compulsory for colleges to get accredited by NAAC in order to avail of grants.