National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) Adviser, Bengaluru, M.S. Shyamasundar on Tuesday said that though there were more than 100 colleges in the Union Territory of Puducherry, only 20 and a university have got accreditation.
He was addressing the representatives from various colleges at the NAAC Awareness Workshop organised by the State Level Quality Assurance Cell, Government of Puducherry, at Bharathidasan Government College for Women on Tuesday.
Mr. Shyamasundar stressed that there were different benefits of accredition. This ensures access to international network for quality assurance agency comprising 30 countries. “Every alternate year, conferences are organised where different quality agencies like NAAC participate and exchange notes. Through this process, we learn various indicators and discuss about issues and challenges before quality agencies. This dialogue between various countries is possible and helps in standardisation of quality in education,” he said.
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He added that memorandum of understanding between agencies helps NAAC to create a platform for student exchange programmes. “NAAC has also strived to ensure credit transfers possible for students pursuing education in the U.S.,” said NAAC Adivser.
Mr. Shyamasundar advocated the colleges to set up an internal quality assurance cell in order to improve academic and administrative performance. He stressed that documentation was very important to move towards a quality administration.
Addressing the gathering, Education Minister R. Kamalakannan requested the NAAC to devise and suggest ways and means to improve the quality of colleges located in rural areas. He stated that the colleges which had not been accredited should offer themselves to assessment. “The institutions that have already been accredited should play a role of motivator for other colleges to improve and obtain accreditation,” he added. He underlined that there was a considerable difference in the quality of education imparted in the rural and urban areas.
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Secretary to Government of Puducherry (Education) Arun L. Desai, Additional Secretary to Government, Director of Higher and Technical Education Yasam Lakshmi Narayana Reddy and Bharathidasan Government College for Women Principal Sasi Kanta Dash were present.