A peer team of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) will undertake a three-day visit to Bharathidasan University from Tuesday to rate the institution for the third cycle of accreditation.
The university was re-accredited with ‘A’ Grade by the NAAC during 2012. The university scored 3.16 on a four-point scale based on a set of seven parameters: curriculum, teaching-learning and evaluation, research consultancy and extension, infrastructure and learning resources, student activities, governance, and innovative practices.
For the third cycle, the university had submitted an elaborate self-study report with the aim of securing A++ ranking. For this, the CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) must be above 3.76 on the four-point scale, with the parameters remaining the same.
The top ranking became imperative for the university to scale up distance education programme, which has been a major source of revenue, after the Ministry of Human Resource Development decided to permit only those universities with top NAAC ranking to offer distance education programme.
The self-study report encompassed details of UGC SAP/ DST FIST recognitions, H-index, descriptions about uniqueness of the department or centre, their significant achievements in the last five years, best and innovative practices, future plan for one to five years, and future plan for six to 20 years, university sources said.
The peer team is expected to prepare a report on a standard format divided into four sections: general profile of the institution, criterion-wise analysis, overall analysis, and recommendations for quality enhancement of the institution. The NAAC deputes peer team only after obtaining 'No Conflict of Interest' statement from the members. The NAAC chooses only those who are above board for the accreditation exercise. The members self-certify that they have no direct or indirect involvement with the proposed institution, were not a domicile of the same State for the last five years, and have no affiliation with an institution competing directly with the proposed institution.
With 23 autonomous colleges, 128 non-autonomous colleges in its fold, Bharathidasan University also expects to improve its ranking under the NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework).
A report submitted for NIRF 2019 ranking states that there are 529 students pursuing doctoral programme full time and 331 on part-time basis till 2017-18. During 2017-18, 108 full-time and 34 part-time Ph.D. students graduated from the university.
Thirty eight sponsored projects were initiated with funding to the tune of ₹4,73 crore from 16 agencies. In the preceding two years, sponsored projects were undertaken to the value of ₹15.79 crore and ₹11.82 crore respectively.
