The university needs to obtain reaccreditation from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), otherwise, it will face challenges in securing funding from various agencies, said Ashutosh Ghosh, the newly appointed full-term vice-
chancellor of Calcutta University, on Thursday.
Ghosh assumed charge as the full-term VC of CU on Thursday. He was appointed to the post by governor C.V. Ananda Bose on Wednesday evening.
The institute was last accredited by the NAAC in 2017, when Ghosh was serving as interim VC. In February 2017, it received an A, scoring 3.2 — two notches below the highest rating, A++, which it had achieved in 2009.
Although CU, the largest affiliating university in the state, has not been reaccredited over the past eight-and-a-half years, its city competitors — Jadavpur University and Presidency University — were reaccredited during this period, Ghosh said.
“This is not a healthy sign. We have to get ourselves reaccredited, or else funding agencies like the department of science and technology might stop funding us,” Ghosh said.
According to him, various agencies fund CU teachers after they submit projects. “If the funding agencies find out that the university has not been reaccredited, it might block the funds. We cannot afford such a situation,” he told Metro.
Ghosh, a professor of chemistry at CU, said he would also ensure that the university’s four-year engineering programmes are accredited by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA).
“NBA accreditation is a must. Jadavpur University gets its programmes accredited by the NBA, while CU, which started its four-year BTech programmes in 2015, has yet to do so. This, too, is not a healthy sign,” said Ghosh.
NBA accreditation is vital as it ensures that an engineering institution running BTech programmes follows the standards set by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). AICTE could derecognise a course if it is not accredited by the NBA, said a professor of CU’s engineering faculty.
“Accreditation or reaccreditation by agencies like the NAAC or the NBA is required as it raises the profile of the institute,” the professor added.
The VC said another priority would be to improve the university’s scores in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), the annual ranking exercise conducted by the education ministry.
Metro reported on September 5 that Calcutta University slipped sharply in this year’s NIRF.
CU, ranked 4th among state universities in 2024, secured 15th position this year. In the overall university category, it dropped from 18th last year to 39th. The university failed to make it to the top 10 in either category, while Jadavpur University performed strongly in both.
“We must improve our standing in the NIRF. We must arrest the decline and climb up in the ranking,” said Ghosh.
Filling vacant posts also features on his priority list. “Around 52% of teaching posts are vacant. Students are suffering because of this. We have to appoint bright teachers,” he said.
“I also intend to implement steps to ensure the timely publication of undergraduate results. The university has been delaying the release of sixth-semester results for the past few years, which delays the start of postgraduate programmes. In recent years, these programmes have started only after the Puja vacation. We must commence PG courses before the Puja vacation,” Ghosh added.