NAAC likely to introduse changes in the grading system
The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is likely to introduce changes in the grading system based on the recommendations of a six member expert committee, constituted by the University Grants Commission (UGC).The decisions which is expected to improve the functioning of NAAC, would be taken at the executive committee meeting of the Council in Bangalore on June 9, sources said.The expert committee recently met in New Delhi and deliberated on several issues.Informed sources told this website's newspaper that the committee was unhappy over NAAC’s grading system, which also did not receive “good public opinion”, as, in certain cases, “qualified and unqualified” colleges were given the same grades.Sources said one of the colleges, which did not even have research facilities, was given the same grade on a par with a college that had these facilities.The committee had questioned the mindset of the chairmen and the peer team which graded them and reportedly asked where was the line to judge and distinguish the quality among colleges.The irregularity was due to the fact that different peer teams had different chairman to inspect colleges in a district.
Hence, the Committee recommended to have a common chairman for district to grade and distinguish the colleges in that jurisdiction, though the peer teams could differ.“If the chairman is common, this kind of anamoly can be avoided,” the committee said.Notably, NAAC has changed its grading from its nine point scale to a three-point scale from April this year.That is, under the nine point scale, colleges were accredited with A, A+, A++ or B, B+, B++ or C, C+, C++. But now, they will either be accredited with A, B or and D will denote that it not accredited.Interestingly, even the UGC’s constituent colleges in New Delhi have not gone for accreditation. It also insisted the Central Universities to go in for accreditation.
