Bhubaneswar, July 29: Vice-chancellors of various universities have aired their apprehensions on losing out major funds from the UGC and the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan for the lack of valid accreditation from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

They have appealed to the government to immediately fill up the vacant positions — the major reason behind the poor grades.

Accreditation of Utkal University, Berhampur University and Sambalpur University expired almost five years ago, but they are yet to apply for re-accreditation.

While the vacancy at Utkal University has touched 123, it is 55 at Sambalput University, 36 at Ravenshaw University and 54 at Berhampur University. The Fakir Mohan University in Balasore has 11 vacancies and the North Odisha University in Baripada has 13 vacancies.

“Till the state government does something to immediately fill up the vacancies, there is no use applying for re-accreditation as student faculty ratio and staff strength are the major criteria on which the rankings are decided,” vice-chancellor of a state university said.

In December 2013, the UGC issued a public notice, saying that its financial assistance to institutions of higher education should be given only to those institutions, which had undergone assessment and accreditation process. Universities were asked to apply for accreditation latest by June 1.

According to the status report available on the NAAC website, the ‘cycle 1’ validity of all these three universities has expired and they are yet to apply for the ‘cycle 2’ assessment. “When an institution undergoes the accreditation process for the first time, it is referred to as ‘cycle 1’ and the consecutive five-year periods as cycles 2, 3 and so on,” said a university employee.