After about a year of fretting and waiting, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council has finally consented to visit the Madras University for its re-accreditation. The reaccreditation by the NAAC, last completed in 2007, was due since 2013.
“The last visit was in 2007. But there was some delay by the previous office bearers in applying for the re-accreditation. But now our application has been accepted and the NAAC peer group will visit the university from March 4-7”, said the Vice-Chancellor of the Madras University, R Thandavan.
A high ranking is among the key criteria for attracting funds for various research projects and new schemes of the UGC for universities. Ahead of the visit of the NAAC, a mock team consisting of vice-chancellors, pro-vice-chancellors and experts in the field of quality assessment from various universities visited all the departments of the university on January 6 and 7. The team submitted its assessment report for each department. The exercise was to enable each department to prepare for the final NAAC peer team visit.
“The feedback given by the mock team has been good and we are confident of getting the best ranking. A self study report has also been submitted to the NAAC in 2013 with information regarding the various developments that the university has undertaken since the last re-accreditation in 2007,” said the NAAC Re-accreditation Coordinator at the university, S Karunanidhi.
The university has been filling up its vacancies and sprucing up the infrastructural facilities at its campuses ahead of the visit.
“A total of 21 teaching vacancies have already been approved by the syndicate. Another 22 have been appointed and is awaiting the approval of the syndicate. By March end we hope to fill all the 95 vacancies in the teaching staff. A total of 124 non-teaching staff vacancies have also been filled in,” said the Vice-Chancellor.