Patna, Aug. 31: Majority of colleges in the state is deprived of fund worth Rs 1 crore from the University Grants Commission, for infrastructure development as they are not accredited to the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

Patna University vice-chancellor S.N. Singh said about 290 colleges in Bihar are recognised by the UGC but “only a few of them have NAAC accreditation”. “And NAAC accreditation is necessary for getting UGC’s development infrastructure fund of Rs 1 crore to each of the college,” he said.

Out of eight colleges, only Patna Women’s College is accredited to the NAAC. “While the accreditation of several colleges has lapsed, several others have not even approached the NAAC for accreditation,” Singh said.

“The NAAC accreditation will not only help the colleges in getting the fund worth Rs 1 crore, it will also raise the image of the colleges and help them to emerge as the centre of excellence,” he said.

Singh said he had already raised the issue at the vice-chancellors’ meeting with the human resource development department recently. He added that the department and the colleges concerned would have to put in serious efforts to improve on the parameters for procuring the accreditation.

“We have to work on improving the teacher-student ratio in the colleges, introduce the semester system and work on to bring the infrastructure to the basic level of the NAAC accreditation,” Singh pointed out. “We are working on it,” he was prompt to add.

The vice-chancellor felt that the NAAC accreditation would give a national recognition to the colleges. “For getting NAAC accreditation, the colleges will also have to develop a strong system of feedback,” Singh said.

Patna University has failed to implement the semester system from the current session as many departments failed to submit the new syllabus for the system.

Under Patna University, Patna Women’s College is NAAC accredited A grade college, while others, including Patna College, Law College, Vanijya Mahavidhyalaya, have never gone for NAAC accreditations.

Dolly Sinha, the principal of Magadh Mahila College said: “We have applied for NAAC accreditation and we are hopeful that we will get it by the end of this year.”