Private companies to help government colleges of Gurugram to improve NAAC rating
Raising concerns, the department said that colleges neither had internal capability nor the bandwidth to prepare themselves for accreditations and ratings.The department has sought bids from private companies which can handhold HEIs in various areas and enable them in getting NAAC accreditations.
The department of higher education on Monday issued a notice for the empanelment of private companies for providing support to government colleges and state universities for getting/improving NAAC accreditation and ratings. The move comes two days after it started an audit of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the state under a framework called PRaYAAS (Performance Rating yardstick for Academic Audit Standards).
Raising concerns, the department said that colleges neither had internal capability nor the bandwidth to prepare themselves for accreditations and ratings. “It has been observed that even if colleges have required infrastructure to be eligible for accreditations, they fail to get good grade in NAAC due to incorrect data and presentation,” said the notice. The department has also outlined that as per the latest UGC mandate, each institute needed to have at least 2.5 grade in NAAC accreditation without which institutes will not be eligible for the central grants.
With the aim of helping colleges in addressing these deficiencies, the department has sought bids from private companies which can handhold HEIs in various areas and enable them in getting NAAC accreditations and improving their score in various ratings. The private company/agency will be tasked with activities such as: generating awareness about NAAC and NIRF, reviewing progress by colleges on NAAC, guidance and training on data collation, registration and preparation, and apprising the directorate regarding infrastructure support required in order to improve NAAC and NIRF ratings.
Pooja Khullar, principal, Dronacharya Government College, said that the department had scaled up its efforts in assisting colleges with NAAC accreditation. “In the past, private companies have never been roped in to assist colleges with this level of involvement. We would, instead, be trained by administrators from colleges that get good NAAC grades. The scope and level of preparation is being increased manifold,” said Khullar.
Satyamanyu Yadav, principal, Government College, Sector 9, said that the department had taken the step of roping in private companies since it wanted more institutes to get NAAC grading which would help improve the state’s excellence index. “NAAC is not an easy assessment. There are eight parameters, broadly speaking. In each parameter, there are ten to twelve more sub-parameters, and in each sub-parameter, there are hundreds of questions. We have to prepare a report for 200-350 pages. Furnishing in-depth details of each activity requires resource persons, and colleges may not necessarily have people who can pull of the task in addition to teaching,” said Yadav. He added that colleges would be better placed if they are assisted in the indexing and documentation of data. “Many times, colleges struggle to prepare the papers. They may have great achievements but no record of the same. These private companies being roped by the government could ease the process,” he said.
Despite repeated phone calls, officials from the department of higher education could not be reached for a comment.