In an attempt to get dominance over the competition, many higher education institutions in the Mumbai city are opting for the evaluation by the National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC).
A total of 452 colleges opted for the NAAC assessment this year and out of these colleges, 40% are from Maharashtra. These include 2 colleges from Mumbai and two from Navi Mumbai. Some of these colleges were given 'A' and 'A+' by the NAAC and three were given an extension of two year for their accreditation.
Thakur College of Engineering and Technology (TCET), Kandivli, is one of the four colleges of the city which was given 'A' for the first time this year. RR Sedamkar , dean, academic at TCET said ' the institute decided to go for accreditation to improve its quality of education. '
“Any quality upgradation benefits the stakeholders, especially students and the industries. The accreditation process helps us gauge the national attitude towards education, and get inputs from experts outside the institute. The entire system is rejuvenated thanks to this exercise,” he said.
National Bureau of Accreditation (NBA) has already evaluated the college twice and now the college is hoping for the NAAC accreditation which will help the college in getting the autonomous status.
According to Suhas Pednekar, principal, Ramnarain Ruia College, Matunga, "the NAAC accreditation helps colleges attract funds from various government bodies, such as University Grants Commission (UGC), department of science and technology (DST) and department of bio-technology (DBT). Many of these grants have been linked to NAAC accreditation. Besides, the Maharashtra government is pushing colleges to subject themselves for this assessment process”.
According to the high performing institutions, the council praised them for their emphasis on the holistic development of the students. “The assessment team was impressed by the way we involved students in various activities. In our college, students are part of several co-curricular activities, college administration and even decision making, to some extent. The students are also given entrepreneurship training, so that they give back to the society,” said Parag Thakkar, principal of the college.
Another common factor in all the high performing colleges is their focus on the research activities where even the students at UG level are engaged in some sort of research activities and knowledge production.