The Higher and Technical Education Administration of Maharashtra government has made it mandatory for all institutes to fulfil the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) grading. This move is part of the state's initiative to implement the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in colleges throughout Maharashtra.
The department has developed a three-step methodology to enforce this rule. First, it will send a notice to the colleges. Then, it will publish a list of non-NAAC-graded colleges on university websites. Lastly, it will advertise these colleges in newspapers.
This decision was taken at a meeting with the vice chancellors (VCs) of Sant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University, Gondwana University, Gadchiroli, and Sant Gadgebaba Amravati University. Earlier, the department had asked the universities around the state to de-affiliate colleges without NAAC accreditation.
The state government required all institutions in February to provide institutional information for quality assessment (IIQA) to the NACC office by March 31 in order to begin NACC review and re-evaluation.
The department asked the colleges to provide an action taken report by September 7, following this past week. But as of right now, none of the state's institutions has submitted an action taken report as instructed by the department.
In response, Shailendra Deolankar, director of higher education, sent out a letter instructing university vice chancellors to attend meetings with the principal secretary of the higher and technical education department. Meetings were held in Pune on Friday, September 8, as per Deolankar's letter. The department expressed dissatisfaction with the universities' attitude towards taking action against those colleges.
Since February this year, the state administration has been working towards implementing NAAC grading for all institutions within Maharashtra. The state government plans to implement NEP 2020 starting with the academic year 2024-2025 in all of the state's colleges.
Maharashtra tops the nation in NAAC-rated colleges due to the government's strategy. The NAAC status report for Maharashtra institutions through August 2023 shows that most government and government-aided colleges have received NAAC ratings.
But only a small fraction of non-aided colleges have received NAAC certification. 24 of the state's 28 government colleges have received NAAC ratings. 1,133 of the 1,177 government-aided colleges have received NAAC ratings. However, just 257 of Maharashtra's 2,141 non-aided colleges get NAAC certification.
The remaining eight universities will have individual meetings concerning the action taken report on September 12 and 13 with the education department and minister of higher education, Chandrakant Patil.
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