At least 695 universities and over 34,000 colleges across the country are operating without accreditation from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Parliament was informed on Monday.
The data was shared by Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar in response to a written question in Lok Sabha.
“As per information received from the UGC, out of the 1,113 universities and 43,796 colleges, NAAC has accredited 418 universities and 9,062 colleges,” he said.
“To bring all the educational institutions, universities and colleges under the accreditation system, NAAC has considerably reduced the fee structure for assessment and accreditation. The metrics and questions in the manual for self-study report for affiliated and constituent colleges have also been considerably reduced,” Sarkar added.
The number of colleges operating without NAAC accreditation is 34,734, he said.
The new National Education Policy (NEP) envisions all higher educational institutions to aim, through their institutional development plans, to attain the highest level of accreditation over the next 15 years.
The accreditation of universities and colleges is done by the NAAC, an Inter University Centre of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
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The Ministry of Education also informed that over 14,600 faculty positions are vacant in higher education institutions (HEIs).
Sarkar in response to a written question said the ministry has directed all central higher education institutions to fill up the vacancies in a mission mode.
He said as reported, there are 14,606 faculty vacancies in HEIs under the ministry. “So far, more than 6,000 posts of faculty and non-faculty have been filled,” Sarkar said.
“The vacancies arise due to retirement, resignation and additional requirements on account of enhanced students’ strength,” the minister said.
The institutions are taking measures to address faculty shortage in order to ensure that studies of students are not affected, “which inter-alia, include engaging research scholars, contract, re-employed, adjunct and visiting faculty”, Sarkar said.
