Panjab University gears up for NAAC team’s visit

Deepankar Sharda

Chandigarh, May 11

Days after the visit of the Vice-President of India and Chancellor, M Venkaiah Naidu, the Panjab University authorities are again gearing up for the coming visit of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

A team of the council will visit the campus to assess the facilities and award the institution with new ranking points. During the previous NAAC visit in 2015, the university was granted A-grade with 3.35 marks out of four. Last year, the preparations for the NAAC visit were halted due to the pandemic.

Sources claimed Vice-Chancellor Raj Kumar was regularly taking meetings with department heads and also initiating various proceedings. “Various meetings are conducted on a daily basis and proper follow-ups taken. Since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, various things have changed on various fronts and all are trying to give their best to overcome all shortcomings,” said the sources.

In 2015, NAAC had recommended consolidation of small cognate departments for the effective and efficient teaching, learning and research. A panel was constituted under the DUI’s chairmanship in 2019 and recently, the university had initiated the process to merge the departments. However, sources maintained, no development had been made to follow the recommendations.

“Discussions had taken place at various platforms. However, no consensus has been reached so far. On certain occasions, faculty members have agreed to the merger of departments, but later they started opposing it. This has to be a collective effort and a decision should be made keeping in mind NAAC’s visit,” added the sources.

The university has to recruit staff in teaching and non-teaching departments as only 650 posts of permanent teacher, out of 1,350, have been filled. “This is also another area of concern. Various reports have suggested that the university got approval for recruiting staff. However, there’s no official word on this. A lot of things need to be streamlined before the visit. To have a consolidated data of the university is another area of concern, as a majority of the departments are yet to give proper information on achievements,” he added.