Universities, Colleges in Kerala should try to obtain higher grading from NAAC: Chief Minister

At present only 29 government colleges in the state have NAAC accreditation and the numbers have to be increased, Kerala Chief Minister said.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the Universities and colleges in the government sector in the state should try to obtain higher grading from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) so that they could get funding from the Centre. At present, only 29 government colleges have NAAC accreditation and the numbers have to be increased, he said, while inaugurating 47 building projects completed at various institutions of higher learning in the state.

“Only such institutions (with higher NAAC grading) were eligible for funds from the Central Government under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA),” the Chief Minister said during the function held through video conferencing. According to the state Higher Education Department website, there are over 300 higher education institutions in Kerala.

RUSA, a scheme of the Human Resource Development Ministry, provides central funding to state higher education departments and institutions to achieve the broad objectives of access, equity and excellence.

The NAAC, an autonomous body funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC), evaluates the higher education institutions to assess the quality status in terms of their performance related to the educational processes, curriculum coverage, teaching-learning processes and various other parameters and accordingly grades them. The projects inaugurated on October 27  were part of the LDF government's commitment to enhance the basic infrastructure and the standard of the higher education sector in the state while ensuring social justice, Vijayan was quoted as saying in a release.

About Rs 64 crore was spent on the projects spread across the state, he said, adding these included smart classrooms, labs, libraries, hostels for girl students, solar energy labs, incubation centers and community skill centres of world standards.

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