Two years after the Delhi police and paramilitary forces entered the Jamia Millia Islamia campus and used tear gas and batons to disperse student protesters inside the library, the university has been awarded A++ ranking by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
Vice-Chancellor Najma Akhtar on Wednesday said that it would have been easy for students, staff, and faculty members to have gotten demoralised after the incident during the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, but the university had given a befitting reply by improving its NAAC ranking.
“We are alive today and doing well. The students who were injured that day when the police came in are back on their feet. We have not let that day make us lose hope and accept defeat but instead rose up and bettered ourselves,” Ms. Akhtar said.
She said that the university would remember December 15, 2019, when it was attacked but now had reason to celebrate the same day.
The A++ is the highest grade given by the NAAC to an institution based on various parameters, including research, infrastructure, learning resources, evaluation, innovation and governance by following a stringent assessment method. In the 2015 rating cycle, the university had got an A rank from the NAAC.
The Vice-Chancellor said that the new ranking is crucial to apply for funds and grants allotted to a university by the University Grants Commission.
“The ranking is not only a confidence booster and will make us work hard to stay on the top but will show other universities that by sheer hard work, they can achieve the top grade. Apart from Jamia Millia Islamia, Jawaharlal Nehru University and IGNOU have received the A++ ranking, she said.
