Telangana at bottom in south with lowest number of NAAC-accredited colleges

HYDERABAD: Telangana has the lowest number of colleges — 168 — in south India accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). This comes as a dampener at a time when the higher education department is encouraging colleges to seek accreditation and autonomous status for the ensuing academic year.

NAAC accreditation is a must to be eligible for several central government schemes, projects, funding under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan for seeking autonomy and getting approval for running courses. NAAC inspects colleges to determine the quality of education on basis of which it accredits and ranks higher educational institutions.



Though Telangana boasts of having the highest number of colleges for per lakh population, over 90 per cent are yet to seek accreditation. Ironically, southern states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have second and third highest number of accredited colleges in the country at 642 and 506 respectively. Even Andhra Pradesh (242) and Kerala (210) have higher number of NAAC-accredited colleges.

At the top of the charts is Maharashtra with 1,140 accredited colleges and ‘A’ grade institutions. “While other southern states are taking keen interest in quality assessment, Maharashtra has made it mandatory for colleges to be eligible to seek funding. This has worked in their favour as colleges have willingly applied for NAAC accreditation,” said Dakshinamurthy, retired professor and an educationist.

According to NAAC figures, of the 168 colleges, only 53 are accredited with ‘A’ grade and a mere six — College of Defence Management, Guru Nanak Institutions Technical Campus, St Pious X Degree and PG College for Women, St Ann’s College for Women, Aurora’s PG College (MCA), Vallurupalli Nageswara Rao Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology — are accredited with ‘A+ or A++’ grade.

Officials claim that the quality of many private colleges in Telangana is poor due to which they are unable to apply for NAAC accreditation. “While we are constantly encouraging colleges to seek NAAC accreditation and autonomous status, many are not doing so because to various shortcomings such as poor infrastructure and faculty. What colleges fail to understand is that securing NAAC accreditation will help them get grants from various funding agencies of the government,” said S Ramachandram, vicechancellor, Osmania University.

Figures from the NAAC state that 286 colleges from Telangana have applied for the accreditation so far and are in the fray to secure grades and ranks.