Patna: The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has decided to extend the accreditation period of Patna Women's College from five to seven years because of consistent high performance.

The college has received a letter in this regard. With this, the validity of accreditation for the college has been extended from previous January 18, 2021, to January 18, 2023. The college is the only one in the state to get such an extension.

Head of department of mass communications at the college, Minati Chaklanavis, said the extension follows the last visit of NAAC team in December 2015. She pointed out that PWC was the only college to get A-grade for three consecutive times. The next NAAC visit to the college will be in 2022-23.

Geography department professor Amrita Chowdhury said NAAC assesses colleges on seven criteria to rate them. "Our performance is increasingly improving and has started bearing fruits in the form of extension of validity period by the NAAC. The college has also found a place in the University Grants Commission list of colleges with potential excellence," she said.

These include curricular aspects; teaching, learning and evaluation; research, extension and consultancy; infrastructure and learning resources; students' progression; leadership and governance; as well as environment and best practices.

In its letter the NAAC has asked the PWC authorities to send its original certificate of accreditation along with a quality profile of the college to get a new certificate issued.

NAAC, which is an autonomous institution under the UGC, has asked the colleges to retain their self-study report (SSR) on their websites till the completion of the validity period of accreditation.

It has also asked the institutions to submit their annual quality assurance report, failing which they will not be eligible for the next cycle of accreditation.