Colleges get ready for NAAC accreditation

Gurvinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 29

With the accreditation for higher educational institutions having been made mandatory by the UGC, most of the colleges in the district are preparing for it. The accreditation has been made compulsory for receipt of grants from the UGC.

The UGC has taken a strict stand under the Mandatory Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Educational Institutions, Regulations-2012.

It will be compulsory for each accredited higher educational institution to apply for re-accreditation, six months prior to the expiry of the five year period.

The colleges accredited earlier were taking a long time than expected for getting the re-accreditation.

The accreditation for Government College for Girls was done in 2003, when the college got the ‘B ++’ rating, while SCD Government College was last accredited in 2005 when it got the ‘A’ rating.

But, under the present norms, colleges and universities will get grant only if they have been accredited on time. So, the process for accreditation has been started in district colleges.

At SCD Government College, documents are being prepared for submission of the assessment reports.

Dr Dharam Singh Sandhu said the reports were going to be submitted with NAAC soon. The process has been delayed at Government College for Girls because of the change of the name of the college from Government College for Women.

Gurminder Kaur, principal of the college, said they had applied for the accreditation earlier, however, due to the change of the name of the college, it took a little longer as it had to be registered in the university and UGC records as well.

The process for the change of name has been completed and the college has started with the accreditation process again, she said.

At Govind National College, Narangwal, the self-assessment report was submitted in August last year. Dr HS Gosal, principal of the college, said the college was going to be accredited for the first time and the next phase of the accreditation was due next month.

The accreditation process involves application for the accreditation by the educational institution following which, a self-assessment report about infrastructure, education and cultural activities among other things has to be submitted with the NAAC.

After a period of about six months, an inspection committee visits the college and assesses infrastructure, educational facilities, interacts with principal, staff, students, management committees, alumni associations and parents, and prepares an assessment report of the college for accreditation.

According to the changed rules, the ‘++’ rating is no longer given to the colleges. The grades are A+, A, B+, B and so on for the institutes of higher education.