NAAC Accreditation stepping stone to greater autonomy, University status: Kansal

Srinagar, May 19: The Principal Secretary Higher Education Department Rohit Kansal complimented the Government Degree College Baramulla and Government Degree Colleges Kupwara and Pulwama. While GDC Kupwara and Pulwama have been accredited with A grade on the National Assessment and Accreditation exercise conducted by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), GDC Baramulla is poised to be granted autonomous status shortly. He also congratulated the other institutions which had successfully completed the accreditation process. While GDC Women Anantnag and GDC Nowsherahad secured a B+ ranking, GDC SPMR Jammu, GDC Doda, Chrar-e-Sharief had completed the process with a B ranking. Kansal made a special mention of the efforts of the Principals of these colleges and their entire staff.
GDC Baramulla is only the third Higher Educational Institute in J&K after Government College for Women, Parade Ground Jammu and Islamia College of Science and Commerce, Srinagar to receive autonomous status.
Kansal reiterated that all the degree colleges in J&K would apply for accreditation or provisional registration (PAC) under the NAAC framework this year. He said that the NAAC accreditation was only the first step towards greater autonomy and educational excellence of all Higher Educational Institutions in J&K. He said that the National Education Policy (NEP-2020) had laid out a clear road map and vision for progressively greater autonomy of all Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) and it was for the HEIs to follow suit and take advantage of the opportunities made available by the NEP-2020.
As per NEP-2020, a stage-wise mechanism for granting graded autonomy to colleges will be established. Colleges will be encouraged, supported, and incentivized to gradually attain the minimum benchmarks required for each level of accreditation. Over a period of time, it is envisaged that every college would develop into either an Autonomous degree-granting College, or a constituent college of a university. Autonomous degree-granting Colleges (AC) would be large multidisciplinary institutions of higher learning granting undergraduate degrees and primarily focused on undergraduate teaching. Autonomous degree-granting Colleges would evolve into Research-intensive or Teaching-intensive Universities.
The higher educational institutes will have the autonomy and freedom to move gradually from one category to another, based on their plans, actions, and effectiveness. The Accreditation System will develop and use relevant norms. NEP-2020 is an ideal roadmap for achieving excellence with these Assessment and Accreditation exercises under NAAC as a valuable means to achieve this end.
The NAAC conducts assessment and accreditation of Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) such as colleges, universities or other recognised institutions to derive an understanding of the ‘Quality Status’ of the institution. NAAC evaluates the institutions for its conformance to the standards of quality in terms of its performance related to the educational processes and outcomes, curriculum coverage, teaching-learning processes, faculty, research, infrastructure, learning resources, organisation, governance, financial well being and student services. The NAAC accreditation is the ultimate parameter of the quality of an institution on a diverse array of parameters.