Chandigarh, 11 October, 2024: The UT OF Chandigarh boasts the highest percentage of colleges accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), according to NAAC Director Ganesan Kannabiran.
He made this statement during the “Vice-Chancellors’ Conference” on National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, organized by Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria at Raj Bhawan.
The two-day conference, which concludes on Friday, focuses on fostering educational excellence, language inclusion, and institutional growth.
Vice-chancellors from all Punjab universities attended, along with Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains. Kannabiran presented on recent advancements and procedures in NAAC accreditation.
He shared that 58% of colleges in Chandigarh are accredited, with 15 out of 26 total colleges meeting this standard.
This surpasses Delhi, where 53% of colleges, or 99 out of 188, are accredited. In terms of universities, Chandigarh ranks just behind Delhi, with two of its three universities accredited, totaling 67%, compared to 21 out of 30 universities in Delhi, which stands at 70%.
Kannabiran noted that low accreditation percentages can lead to unhealthy competition among higher education institutions and promote unfair practices.
He raised the need for a “light but tight” accreditation process to ensure a baseline level of quality for higher education nationally, considering the variability among institutions.
NAAC aims to cover 90% of higher education institutions in the next five years through binary accreditation and maturity-based graded levels.
