BHUBANESWAR: The delay on the part of autonomous colleges in upgrading their National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) grade and accreditation has cost them dearly including losing the College with Potential for Excellence (CPE) funds from the University Grants Commission (UGC).
These institutions - Rama Devi Women’s College at Bhubaneswar, Gangadhar Meher College at Sambalpur, SCS College in Puri and Government College at Kalahandi - will not enjoy the CPE status benefits for a period of five years now.
Though they had received funds to the extent of `75 lakh to `1.5 crore in the first phase, the UGC has now refused to grant them second phase funds under the scheme which is aimed at promoting one per cent of India’s autonomous and affiliated colleges as world-class centres of excellence. The UGC had introduced the scheme in its 10th Plan period and awarded a financial grant ranging from `35 lakh to `two crore to the selected institutions for undertaking specialised research, academic improvement and developing infrastructure.
In Odisha, 12 colleges under two universities had secured the CPE status in the 10th Plan and it held for five years.
While the GM College and Kalahandi Government College were identified as CPE in 2004-05 and the status had been extended upto end of 11th Plan period, RD Women’s College and SCS College got the status in 2009-10.
The ambitious multi-crore project is currently in its second phase of implementation and the UGC expects to complete the project with one more phase.
In August last year, UGC had called for proposals from the four colleges for second phase funding. In December, a standing committee on CPE processed the proposals and rejected them on the basis of lack of quality certification by NAAC.
Apparently, one of the main eligibility criteria for the status is a score of more than 3.5 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) in its NAAC grade along with innovative programmes, improved university examination results and student support services. However, all the four colleges do not have valid NAAC grades as of now.
Sources in the UGC said colleges as CPE were expected to innovate in the fields of governance, framing of the curriculum, teaching methodologies and assessment system. However, during evaluation of their proposals, the colleges were found lacking in ‘innovation’ and ‘academic relevance’.
Principal, Kalahandi Government College, Loknath Sahu and his Rama Devi College counterpart, Chitrangada Samanta Singhar admitted to the NAAC shortcoming.
Samanta Singhar informed that the NAAC team will be visiting the campus on January 21 for reviewing re-accreditation proposal.
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