Darjeeling, Nov. 4: A four member peer team of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) will visit St Jospeh’s Collge (North Point) and Loreto College to inspect its infrastructure to facilitate grading.

These Darjeeling colleges are the first in North Bengal University to have completed their self-assessment reports and applied for accreditation.

The programme is part of an effort to provide quality education across the country in tune with the standards laid down by the ministry of higher education and state higher education secretaries in the National Action Plan, 2001.

The grading conducted by the NAAC is based on a nine-point scale and would determine the funds the UGC will sanction for these colleges. These funds are crucial to sustain standards of excellence.

North Point vice-principal Shanti Chhetri said the colleges had already submitted their self-assessment reports and the inspection was part of the process.

The four members of the team, which includes K. Rama, deputy adviser NAAC, G.N. Talukdar vice-chancellor, Gauhati University, P. Ramaiah of B.R. Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad and S.K. Mishra from the North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, would evaluate the colleges across seven crucial parameters.

Some of these include curriculum designing, research consultancy and extension, infrastructure and resources for students.

Chhetri said the team, which will leave Darjeeling on November 7, would also interact with guardians, students and alumni members during their visit in order to determine the academic standards in the institutions as well as the overall facilities available to students studying in various streams.

A good grading by the NACC would also open up better opportunities for research and could give the colleges a shot at being selected as national centres of excellence.

Only 100 colleges in the country are selected as potential centres.

Chhetri also said that only four colleges in the state had so far been accredited by the NAAC. Among them are St. Xavier’s, Ashutosh Collge and Loreto College in Calcutta and Sudernath College.

St Joseph’s College has also been proposed as one of the lead colleges in the district — the other being Siliguri college. Lead colleges are to help in the development other clusters ofcolleges of the region.

All the districts in north Bengal will ideally have one lead college.

Darjeeling, however, has two such colleges, taking into consideration the topography of the area.