289 govt colleges in Karnataka bag NAAC grade in 2 years

BENGALURU: In a major achievement for the higher education department, 289 government first-grade colleges in Karnataka have been accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) over the past two years.
Another 18 colleges are expected to get their grades by this month-end, which will take the total to 307.

Of the 289 colleges that received NAAC accreditation, starting July 2019, Government Arts College in Bengaluru received an A+ grade. While 22 colleges received A grade, 65 were awarded B++, 95 got B+ and another 95 colleges were awarded a B. Eleven colleges got a C grade.
Before 2019, only 30 GFGCs had earned NAAC accreditation.Of the 430 GFGCs in Karnataka, around 60 are yet to be accredited.
A NAAC recognition is valid for five years and comes for a fee of around Rs 3.2 lakh. The latest accreditations come at a time when the process faces criticism from certain quarters over its credibility.
"At a time when even many private colleges do not have it, we consider it as an achievement to get it for around 300 of our colleges. It is an affirmation of our standard," said Pradeep P, commissioner, department of collegiate education.
The higher education department had formed a special task force in 2019, which created regional offices and guided the colleges through the seven stages of the NAAC journey."That colleges from far-off rural areas have also earned the recognition is a matter of pride for us. Some of these were established in 1985 and were getting accredited for the first time," the task force members said.
According to the task members, "colleges from Karnataka fared well in teaching-learning evaluation, governance and leadership".
"The advantage with government colleges in the state is in the area of student enrolment. Additionally, there are good admission numbers and the diversity is also good. There are scholarships, free laptop schemes and fee reimbursements. Teachers are well-qualified and curricular and extra-curricular activities are also robust," the members added.
"One area of concern was infrastructure, but we later realised that infrastructure accounted for only 150 points on the judgment scale. Also, it is about maximum utilisation of existing resources, where the state's colleges were already doing well," the commissioner explained.
While colleges in Karnataka fared well in some of the best practices such as adopting villages, many of them were found lagging on environmental parameters such as green audits, sensor-based lightning and infrastructure such as automated libraries.
"The first priority was to get a NAAC accreditation. Now, we can improve in the upcoming cycles," Pradeep said