Governor Ved Prakash Marwah

Ranchi, Nov. 6: Governor Ved Marwah has directed the government to expedite the process of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditation for universities and colleges.

Marwah, who is also the chancellor, yesterday summoned higher education director K.K. Shrivastava and directed him to stick to the UGC accreditation deadline of December to ensure quality education in Jharkhand.

St Xavier’s College is the only NAAC certified institute in Jharkhand.

The benefit of NAAC accreditation include improvement in quality of education, gradation of colleges and help to employers to select the best institutions for campus interviews. The accreditation also helps colleges in getting better funding from UGC and other agencies.

The Union human resource development ministry and the University Grants Commission have directed the state governments to complete the accreditation process of all colleges by December 2003.

NAAC, an autonomous body floated by the University Grants Commission, has accredited 98 universities and 497 colleges in the country.

Shrivastava said the human resources development department would ensure that Raj Bhavan’s directions are followed.

He said: “I have received a letter from NAAC director V.S. Prasad, mentioning the special initiative taken by the agency to expedite the accreditation process in the states. The agency has suggested us to form state-level quality assurance coordiation committee to expedite the process.”

The agency has also suggested the structure of the committee as following: HRD minister as chairperson, HRD secretary as vice-chairperson, representatives of other planning and coordinating bodies of the higher education at state level, about three vice-chancellors of state universities, two principals and two to three persons representing stakeholders in higher education like NGOs, corporate sector, private management and others, while the higher education director will be the convenor.

“The NAAC director has suggested to establish quality assurance cells to help NAAC to achieve the targets of assessment and accreditation for affiliated colleges. The quality assurance cells will also advise the state government to initiate suitable measures to ascertain the maintenance of minimum standards in institutes of higher education.