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LATEST
NEWS |
07th
March 2010 / Times of India / Mumbai Edition
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 Varsities flashing expired grades
70 Institutes Continue With NAAC Ratings That Are Not Valid
Mumbai: For all those who is planning to make it to top ranked institutions, here is a word of caution: do not go by the publicised rating of the college or the university. TOI’s investigations have revealed that quite a few of the so-called top institutes have been flaunting ratings that have already expired.
The MS University of Baroda, for example, boasts of a four-star grade awarded by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC); the only catch is that this rating was annulled as far ago as in January 2006. This is not a solitary case. Seventy other institutes, including Pune University, Mangalore University and the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages in Hyderabad, have been advertising rankings that expired long ago.
At a time when the ministry of human resources development is serving hard punches to private and deemed universities, its own institutes are sitting pretty on old grades, which are no longer valid. While accreditation is not mandatory, NAAC rules specify that grades are valid only for five years and they expire at the end of that term. Colleges and universities have to reapply for inspection to receive fresh ranking.
NAAC silent on course of action
Mumbai: Around 70 institutes across the country continue to display the star rankings that they received from the NAAC, little acknowledging that the grades have expired long ago.
In fact, in 2008, the NAAC’s executive committee had announced that the institutes—whose grades were about to complete the fiveyear term or were in the last quarter of the fifth year—should submit a letter of intent and a request for re-accreditation. However, most universities gave re-assessment a skip and continued flashing their old grades.
Heads of several of the universities—whose NAAC rankings have expired—that TOI contacted said the paper work for reaccreditation was taking longer than they had thought and so the lapse. In most other instances, the institutes had overlooked the fact that their grades had expired and they were still using them.
Ramesh Goyal, vice-chancellor of MS University in Baroda, said he started the process of applying for reaccreditation after he took charge in 2008. “I am aware that our NAAC grade expired in 2006. After I took over, I started the process of applying for re-assessment and we are likely to get our new grade soon,’’ Goyal added.
S Shanmugavel, registrar of Anna University, said a committee was set up in 2007 to re-apply for accreditation. “But there is a delay in sending our application as our officials are busy with other things. It is difficult to tell when we will apply for re-assessment,’’ Shanmugavel added. When contacted Karuna Shankar Das, vicechancellor of Rabindra Bharati University, said they had started the process of compiling information required by the NAAC and would soon submit it.
NAAC director H Ranganath is not in the country, but the in-charge head, B S Madhukar, said the universities were expected to re-apply for a fresh round of assessment. He, however, declined to comment about the action that NAAC would take against the erring institutes.
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University |
Grade |
Expired |
| University of Pune |
5 Star |
Nov 2006 |
| CIEFL, Hyderabad |
5 Star |
Jan 2006 |
| Manipal University, Manipal |
B+ |
Oct 2007 |
| Anna University, Chennai |
5 Star |
Feb 2007 |
| M S University, Vadodara |
4 Star |
Jan 2006 |
| Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics, Pune |
A+ |
Jan 2009 |
| SNDT Women's University, Mumbai |
5 Star |
April 2005 |
| Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidyala, Haridwar |
4 Star |
May 2007 |
| Rabindra Bharati, Kolakata |
4 Star |
Oct 2006 |
| IIT, Roorkee |
5 Star |
Feb 2005 |
| NAAC ACCREDITION: The National Assessment and Accredition Council is a body set up under UGC to grade educational Institutes across the country. It rates public and private institutes based on campus facilities, quality of the programmes, faculty and research. |
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