Former Mangalore University vice-chancellor M I Savadatti has been asked to head the Academic and Administrative Audit (AAA) Committee at Bangalore University (BU) in the run-up to get itself re-accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
The university’s previous accreditation of A grade in 2008 will expire in September. Thus, the committee is set up to undertake a comprehensive exercise of assessing all the 49 departments in the university to know where it stands.
“Science Dean K Harishchandra, who is also a professor of statistics, will be a part of this committee,” Vice-chancellor B Thimme Gowda told reporters on Tuesday.
“The Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) was functional for just one year. Nothing was done to ensure quality in the last three years,” Prof Gowda said. Centre for Gandhian Studies Director D Jeevan Kumar had been appointed as the new IQAC Coordinator, he added.
He said a full-fledged exercise is on to prepare for re-accreditation, including preparation of a self-study report, which will be submitted to NAAC prior to a peer team visit.
“Now that the BEd issue has reached a stage, we can now turn our focus towards preparing for re-accreditation,” he added.
Replying to a question on whether the recent controversies would have a negative impact on the NAAC rating, Gowda said: “It is wrong to focus on the 10 per cent that may have gone wrong. We still have a great campus with good infrastructure. I am confident that we can get another A grade.” Institutions are graded for each key aspect under four categories - A, B, C and D - denoting very good, good, satisfactory and unsatisfactory levels respectively.
Savadatti, however, said he had not received any official communication from the university inviting him to head the AAA committee.
“They had asked me some time ago for this. As the senior-most (former) V-C in the state, I want the university do well and I am ready to take it up if the BU can accommodate me at my convenience,” he said.