Five non-accredited colleges in the vicinity will be mentored by colleges with strong ratings from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and supported throughout the accreditation process.
The state is higher and technical education department created the Paras Sparsh Scheme, modeled after the Center’s Paramarsh, a mentorship initiative to raise the standard of education in NAAC-aspirant institutions. The state cabinet approved a budget of Rs 13.5 crore for the scheme along with the department’s proposal on Wednesday.
In the state, around 60% of colleges lack accreditation.
According to a government official, under the three-year scheme, the best-accredited schools would receive cash from the government for training, workshops, handholding, and providing help to mentee colleges to apply for accreditation. It is probable that 225 institutions, including those that offer conventional and technical courses, will be chosen to receive the funds.
Minister for Higher and technical education Chandrakant Patil stated that the programme would aid in NAAC and NBA accreditation. NBA accredits technical courses, while NAAC accredits the university.
It is a good idea, according to Dinesh Punjwani, secretary of HSNC University, but it needs to be properly implemented with the guiding institutions held accountable. He suggested placing more emphasis on having a proper comprehension of the quantitative matrices in the benchmarking paper.
Only roughly 1,368 of the 3, 346 colleges in the state have undergone NAAC assessment, and 1,978 have never applied for accreditation. 704 technical colleges have never had their performance evaluated.
In a statement, Patil claimed that a session held at Mumbai University demonstrated the necessity of advice for colleges seeking accreditation. The mentors will be chosen by committees that have been constituted at the state advisory, university, and district levels. In a week, a GR with additional information is anticipated.
According to a principle, the NAAC documentation procedure is time-consuming, and because 70% of it is based on quantitative assessment, colleges could miss out on high marks even with a single incorrect entry.
(Source: Times of India)
