Strictest action comes as 60% colleges in Maharashtra never graded

MUMBAI: The higher and technical education department is contemplating not permitting colleges that have not begun the process of accreditation to admit new students in the coming academic session, said a circular issued by the directorate of higher education (DHE) on March 2.
A senior principal said de-affiliating colleges may also lead to discontinuation of grants.
All colleges with no accreditation or ‘inactive’ status will have to submit their Institutional Information for Quality Assessment (IIQA) report to NAAC by March 31. A few colleges whose accreditation is up to 2024 have been shown as ‘inactive’, said a principal.
Data from the DHE cuts a sorry picture even for colleges which receive grants from the government. Of the 1,171 leading aided colleges, 71 have never gone in for accreditation (see graphic), and the grades for as many as 584 are not valid — they did not renew after their cycle for a period of five or seven years expired. NAAC status of such colleges are categorised as ‘inactive’. Shockingly, 60% of all colleges in the state have never been graded.
The status of several leading aided colleges is shown as inactive on the DHE list. Among the 28 government colleges, too, only five have a valid rating. Of the remaining, four were never accredited and the status of 19 is ‘inactive’. Unaided ones are the worst of the lot, as only about 6% of the 2,141 colleges have a valid NAAC rating. As many as 1,893 such colleges have never gone for accreditation.
Director (higher education) Shailendra Deolankar said the state is planning to take stringent action this time. “We have been asking colleges to get accredited for some time now. Still, there are more than 50% aided colleges whose accreditation status is inactive and more than 80% unaided colleges which were never graded. If they do not initiate the process by March 31 and submit their IIQA report, the government is planning to direct the universities to deaffiliate them,” he said.
While Maharashtra has been promoting accreditation in the recent past, this is the first time it has issued such a strict directive. Since accreditation was made mandatory in 2015, Karnataka every yearidentified a bunch of colleges for accreditation. “Colleges were told a year in advance they had to be ready for accreditation. If they didn’t have funds, the government gave them funds, a special cell was set up to assist those colleges. Now, there are merely 36 unaccredited colleges in the entire state,” said a former quality assurance cell officer from Karnataka. Similar is the case in most other southern states.
“Once the IIQA report is submitted to NAAC, colleges must go through accreditation. NAAC will accept their reports and the subsequent timeline will be decided,” said a Maharashtra official. DHE data show regions such as Aurangabad (74%), Nagpur (69%) and Panvel (65%) have the highest percentage of colleges never accredited, while Kolhapur (34%), Jalgaon (37%) and Solapur (42%) are among the better ones.
After a joint board of vicechancellors’ meeting with the chancellor and higher education minister Chandrakant Patil in October, the minister had warned colleges to get accredited in six months.
(With inputs from Hemali Chhapia)