CHENNAI: The 175-year-old Presidency College, which is south India’s first educational institution, has been operating without the accreditation of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) for the past six years.
Though a voluntary certification, its absence is said to have resulted in freezing of grants from the University Grants Commission and the Union government for the college, leaving it to fend for itself and struggle for funds, college officials say.
The college is now making desperate attempts to again get accredited and is in the process of preparing a self-study (SSP). Principal T Pramananda Perumal said the SSP is likely to be submitted by November and a NAAC team may visit in December.
“The idea is to get the NAAC accreditation before the start of the next academic year. Our autonomous status is valid still for 2017-18. Since all financial grants are linked to the NAAC accreditation, we are facing difficulties in seeking funds. Hopefully, everything will be sorted out soon,” he told Express.
Asked why there was such a big lapse, he attributed the crisis to mistakes committed during the tenure of his predecessors. The accounts were not maintained properly. The expenditure statements were not in accordance with the UGC requirements and questions were raised.
“We are trying to address all issues. The Internal Quality Assurance Committee (IQAC) has been formed and an UGC coordinator has been appointed. The annual quality assurance report (AQAR) is also being prepared,” he said.
In 1998, the college was accredited with four stars by the NAAC and in March 2005, the NAAC re-accredited the college and awarded the grade “A” (85% to 90%), which expired in 2010. Since then the college made little efforts to get the re-accreditation. Interestingly, the college was one of the first institutes to get autonomous status way back in 1987.
The college also could not use `5-crore grant sanctioned for its 175th year celebration as it lacked the NAAC’s stamp. The college was reportedly asked to refund the amount along with interest, since it remained non-utilised.
The college authorities told the Express the NAAC recognition wasn’t mandatory for getting financial grants till 2012. The trouble started after the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry and the UGC started tightening the rules and made the NAAC stamp literally compulsory.
Another biggest challenge was the frequency at which principals kept changing. In the last 15 years, there were 13 principals of which six were in-charge principals.
“If the head of the institution is not holding the post for at least two years, such administrative lacunae are bound to happen. In the recent past, Pramananda Perumal is the longest serving principal. He took charge in September 2014 and has been showing lot of interest to set right things,” said CV Chittibabu, associate professor, Department of Plant Biology, Presidency College.