Reorganise small depts: NAAC to PU

Aarti Kapur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 5

Panjab University should reorganise small departments by merging these with mainstream departments for a "fruitful outcome" and avail of various grants for which these are not eligible due to their tiny size. This recommendation was made by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) peer team to the university authorities in its preliminary report on the conclusion of its four-day visit to the campus today.

The team pointed out that according to the UGC norms, the departments which had less than six faculty members could not avail of the grants due to which these failed to make any improvement in their infrastructure and research work.

Lauding the efforts of PU Vice-Chancellor Arun Kumar Grover, the team said the university was excelling in science research work but there was a need for the core expansion of the humanities departments. The team said the research work conducted in various departments was the strength of the university but if one counted the individual contribution, there was need for improvement.

The team recommended that the infrastructure in the boys' hostels should be improved and new hostels should be constructed. In the report, the team also mentioned that the university should get affiliation for all courses to avoid derecognition from the UGC. During the inspection, the team found that the university's master's in physical education course was not affiliated and asked it to do the needful. Another suggestion which the team made was to adopt the choice-based credit system and improve the student feedback system and the internal quality assurance cell from the next academic session.

The team also made an observation that keeping in view the population residing on the campus, there was need for strengthening the internal security system. The university should also improve the teacher-student ratio even though it is already meeting the norms set by the UGC.

The team asked the PU to deal with cases of sexual harassment carefully and publicise the sexual harassment cell among students so that they can seek assistance in case of any difficulty.