After going to town these past months on its achieving a high rating from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Asutosh College, an affiliate of Calcutta University, appears to have ended up at the bottom of the table of NAAC-rated colleges in the state.

Puncturing college authorities’ claim that their institution would shortly be in the same league with the elite Presidency College, Antony Stella, NAAC adviser, said on Thursday that Asutosh has been marked C++ on a nine point-scale. “It is almost at the bottom of the ladder in the NAAC benchmarking,” she told Metro from Bangalore.

Gyanankur Goswami, principal, Asutosh College, was not available for comment on the issue as he is away on tour. Other functionaries declined to speak.

The C++ rating comes seventh from the top of the new nine-point scale of the NAAC. According to Stella, the decision was taken on the basis of the institution’s self-study reports and the findings of the NAAC team which inspected the college in August.

“The college will be required to take suitable measures to plug their loopholes,” said Stella.

The low rating is significant as this may lead to a dip in funds from the government. According to the new rules of the University Grants Commission (UGC), allotment of funds to state-funded universities and colleges depend on the NAAC rating.

The poor performance of Asutosh College has put the state government in an awkward situation since this may lead to reluctance among lesser-known institutions to go in for NAAC accreditation. Before Ashutosh, only Loreto College, a private institution, got NAAC accredidation and won a high four-star rating.

Nirmalya Banerjee, deputy secretary, West Bengal Higher Education Council, said: “It is surprising that Asutosh has got such a low rating despite being one of the best colleges in Calcutta. Other colleges who hardly bother to maintain standards should pull up their socks. Else they may face severe fund cut in future,” said Banerjee.

All state-aided colleges will have to get themselves accreditated to the NAAC by March 2003.

They feel, after noticing the fate of Asutosh, the less known institutions are likley to avoid sending their self study reports to he NAAC which is a primary necessity for getting the accreditation.

the Council had not received any formal letter from the NAAC about the grade awarded to Ashutosh College.