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Latest News |
| 07th
March 2010 / Times of India / Bangalore Edition |
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Varsities continue with expired NAAC grades
Mumbai: For all those who are planning to make it to topranked
institutions, here is a word of caution: do not go by
the publicized rating of the college or the university.
TOI’s investigations have revealed that quite a
few of the socalled top universities 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 (NNAC); the only catch is that this
rating was annulled as far ago as in January 2006. This
is not a solitary case. Seventy other Indian 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are no longer valid.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 after they are awarded and they expire at the end
of that term. Colleges and universities have to re-apply
for inspection to receive fresh ranking.
In fact, in 2008, the NAAC’s executive committee
had announced that the institutes — whose grades
were about to complete the five-year 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
splashing their old grades.
Heads of several of the universities — whose NAAC
rankings have expired — that TOI contacted said
the paper work for re-accreditation 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.
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