More than 220 colleges of State will lose grants from University Grants Commission (UGC) if they fail to get NAAC accreditation soon. According to the gazette of India, 2013 every college should have National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditation for eligibility to get UGC grant.
Department of Higher Education (DHE) and UGC have ordered the colleges of the State to get NAAC accreditation but the college administrations are negligent towards accreditation work. Till now only 75 colleges of State have been inspected by NAAC team and around 50 colleges are under the process.
UGC is worried about the colleges and universities facing shortage of teaching staff, limited resources, lack of vocational and professional courses and degradation of quality of research work. Only 30 per cent colleges of the country have been accredited by the NAAC. UGC has made NAAC accreditation compulsory to improve the standard of education. NAAC only has accreditation authority but it cannot take action against institutions with poor education standards. Colleges and universities avoid getting NAAC accreditation as they suspect after accreditation their UGC grants scale will be decreased.
Many colleges are still drawing hefty grants from UGC according to their earlier reputation and research work while their education standard has degraded in the meantime. If they get accredited then they will get grant according to their present stature only. If UGC stop grants of over 220 colleges of state then students will be affected the most as major researches and project in the state are funded by UGC only also the development work will stop.
DHE Commissioner VS Niranjan said that colleges are being regularly asked to get accreditation from NAAC. DHE does not have much saying in accreditation work, directly colleges are themselves for it, he added.