70 pc colleges to face music for failure to seek NAAC grade

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad: Nearly 70 per cent of undergraduate and postgraduate colleges within the jurisdiction of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (Bamu) will face the music for their failure to seek a grade from National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

It may be noted that the State Government decided to get completed NAAC accreditation of all the colleges to improve the quality of education and become the top State in the country.

So, the higher education department held a review meeting in Bamu recently. The top officers of the department instructed Bamu to send a notice to the colleges seeking a NAAC grade. The university issued a circular asking all the colleges to complete the assessment early as possible. All the colleges within the jurisdiction of Bamu will have to seek a grade from NAAC before March 31, 2023.

There are 486 affiliated colleges in Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed and Osmanabad districts within the jurisdiction of the university for the academic year 2022-23. Of them, 115 completed the NAAC evaluation while the remaining were asked to seek the grade on the given deadline.

The majority of them, are granted. However, there are nine colleges which have not applied for the assessment since their inception.

The university took serious note of this. Following the directives of vice-chancellor Dr Pramod Yeole, the colleges were asked to complete the NAAC evaluation by March 31, otherwise, they will be put in the ‘No Admission’ category colleges. Those colleges which have not completed five years will have to apply for an academic audit.

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Only 349 colleges done NAAC

Director of Higher Education Dr Shailendra Deolankar told this newspaper that said NAAC accreditation was made mandatory for colleges to improve the quantity and quality of higher education. He said that those colleges which would fail to seek NAAC grades would face action. There are 2,500 non-aided colleges and 1,177 aided colleges in the State. Of them, 1,104 aided and 245 non-aided have done NAAC accreditation.

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7 criteria for assessment

There are seven parameters for NAAC assessment for higher educational institutions. Each parameter has a different weightage. The parameters are as follows; Curricular Aspects, Teaching-learning and Evaluation, Research, Innovations and Extension, Infrastructure and Learning Resources, Student Support and Progression, Governance, Leadership and Management, and Institutional Values and Best Practices