The Hindu : UGC mulling over linking grant with accreditation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 11, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

UGC mulling over linking grant with accreditation

By Our Special Correspondent

Coimbatore Nov. 10. The University Grants Commission may evolve a mechanism for linking grant with the "assessment and accreditation'' process, V.N.Rajasekharan Pillai, Director, National Assessment and Accreditation Council, has said.

Dr. Pillai is here in connection with the inauguration of a two-day seminar-cum-awareness programme on institutional preparation for NAAC accreditation at the Bharathiar University.

In a press release, Dr. Pillai said the Ministry of Human Resource Development, in a recent meeting, asked the NAAC to identify, on all-India basis, 20 top departments in each discipline.

The UGC may work out the mechanism to provide incentives to institutions and universities graded high by the NAAC, he added. Till date, 70 universities and 226 colleges had received NACC accreditation.

The objective of the seminar was to provide guidance to colleges and universities. Colleges would be guided on achieving quality standards and maintaining them. Emphasis would be on the benefits of accreditation, helping institutions know their strengths, weaknesses and opportunities, identifying internal areas of planning and resource allocation, and providing the funding agencies with objectives and systematic database for performance. Steps would be taken to initiate institutions into innovative and modern methods of pedagogy.

Besides, the seminar would provide the people with reliable information on the quality of education offered by institutions and inform employers on recruitment standards.

The Governments of Maharashtra, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Assam, Nagaland, Orissa and Uttaranchal accepted the NAAC's action plan and a few of them established cells for assessment and accreditation in the Ministry of Higher Education, he said.

An action plan for quality assurance and accreditation, modelled for different States, had been approved in a meeting of State Secretaries of Higher Education.

The MHRD and the UGC made it mandatory for all colleges to submit their self-study reports before December next.

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