HYDERABAD: Telangana government’s legislation allowing private universities says it is based on the objective of providing ‘world-class education’.
However, there is a serious need to look at the existing private colleges in the State which are failing to maintain even the basic standards of quality.
Analysis done by Express reveals that this year, till October, just 10 colleges from the State applied for accreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) for the first time. This considered there are more than a 1,000 colleges in Telangana that are not accredited.
NAAC publishes results of accreditation to colleges across the country after inspecting them based on cycles.
Colleges getting accredited for the first time are listed under Cycle-I, those going for accreditation for the second time are listed under Cycle-II and so on. Going through the list of colleges accredited by NAAC this year under Cycle-I reveals that there are only 10 colleges from the State which were accredited.
Looking at the overall list of NAAC accredited colleges shows that there are around 178 accredited colleges in Telangana of which 45 are owned by the government.
As per the list of private colleges affiliated to State-run universities in Telangana, there are over 1,200 colleges offering various undergraduate and post-graduate courses. This means just 15 per cent private colleges in the State are NAAC accredited.
Former vice-chairman of Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE), Prof Sankasala Mallesh says, “For a college to be accredited by the NAAC, a set of minimum standards have to be maintained by a college regarding the quality of its faculty, infrastructure, research and other aspects.”
He further added, “The State government writes to colleges to go for NAAC accreditation, as getting accredited also opens up doors for Central funding. However, most colleges do not go for it because they do not uphold the minimum criteria. The government can force the colleges to go for accreditation by taking action like cutting down on number of seats or courses in unaccredited colleges.”
Failure to maintain quality standards
According to former vice-chairman of TSCHE, Prof Sankasala Mallesh, “For a college to be accredited by the NAAC, a set of minimum standards have to be maintained. Most colleges do not go for it because they do not uphold the minimum criteria by the management”