Dhanbad, July 9: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has set a deadline of April 2005 for the universities and colleges of the eastern region to obtain a gradation certificate from the national accreditation and assessment council (NAAC), failing which it will withdraw the development assistance or “grants”.

The NAAC was established by the UGC in Bangalore to act as an inter-university centre for accreditation and assessment of various colleges and universities in the year 1994. In the wake of the decision taken by the UGC in November 2003, in which it had resolved to implement the accreditation of universities and colleges under sections 2(f) and 12(b) of the UGC act, the accreditation was made mandatory. Till date it has awarded a gradation certificate to 104 universities and 1034 colleges in India.

All the colleges and the universities in Bihar and Jharkhand have not yet obtained the certification. As a result, the UGC has curtailed one-third of the grant according to the provision in the ninth five-year plan.

Tilka Manjhi University of Bhagalpur is the only one among the 11 universities in Bihar and Jharkhand to have obtained the NAAC tag.

Among the colleges only Ranchi Women’s College, Marwari College Ranchi and St Xavier College Ranchi have obtained it. Patna Women’s College and the Guru Nanak College in Dhanbad have also received it recently.

To obtain the accreditation, an institution is required to send a self-study report and a CD of the infrastructure available in the college to the NAAC in Bangalore. On the basis of these, a committee visits the campus for inspection. Assessment is based upon the basic criteria such as infrastructure, faculty and teachers’ qualifications, teaching and research, and extra curricular activities. In the report, the committee awards five grades to each of the categories: A for 90 per cent and above, B for 70 per cent and above, with a sub category of B+ for 80 per cent and above, C for 55 per cent and above, D for 40-55 per cent and E for below 40 per cent,which also means rejection.

“We have sent our self-study report and CD to NAAC and expect an inspection by the peer committee any time in the month of November this year,” said Purnendu Shekhar, principal of Guru Nanak College in Dhanbad.

General Secretary of the Teachers Association Of Vinoba Bhave University Prof K.K. Sharma, however, said a gradation should not be made among equivalent degrees from different institutions. He felt this to be one of the reasons behind the lack of initiative of many institutions to obtain the NAAC accreditation.