Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Calicut University gears up for NAAC assessment, prepares self study report

KOZHIKODE: The Calicut University has completed the first round of preparations for the crucial National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) assessment and has finalized the Self Study Report (SSR) which will be submitted to the NAAC authorities by August 10.

The varsity is submitting itself for evaluation for the third time. In the first assessment held in 2002, it had received a 3-star rating and during the re-assessment in 2010 it had received a B- grade with a score of 2.94, which was the highest score obtained by a varsity in Kerala then.

Though varsity authorities exuded optimism of getting an A- grade rating this year, academics said that the strained relationships between various stakeholders and the varsity authorities are a cause for concern . Teachers have already pointed out in review meetings that their promotions are pending for no reason and the director of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (ICAQ) has himself written that it should be resolved before the NAAC peer team visit.

The ICAQ of the varsity has prepared a 216-page Self Study Report (SSR) which will be submitted to the NAAC. The NAAC peer team is likely to visit the varsity later this year after studying the report.

The SSR says that the varsity has made significant progress in the key areas of curriculum design and development, teaching, learning and evaluation, research and consultancy and infrastructure and learning resources, student support and progression and innovation and best practices.

The SSR document highlights the high human resource potential in the varsity with 136 of the 148 permanent teachers on the varsity campus having PhD degrees.

On the academic sector, the varsity rests its hopes on successful implementation of Choice based credit semester system (CCSS), the increase in both research enrollments and research outlay.

The report says that the percentage of allocation for research has risen from 1.9 % in 2010-11 to 3.28 % in 2014-15.

Also, the amount given as various central and state fellowships to students has risen from Rs 2.19 crore to Rs 5.5 crore.

It also lists administrative reforms like digital document filing system (DDFS) and biometric punching for attendance monitoring as major achievements. Green initiatives including energy and water conservation programmes are among the best practices implemented by the varsity.

On the technology front, the varsity has listed the e-governance initiatives, the public portal, fully Wifi campus and purchase of new servers at a cost of Rs 52 lakh and cloud computing facility as major achievements.

"It was the internal discord which affected the chances of the varsity to get higher rankings in the last two assessment cycles. In 2002, the then vice-chancellor was gheraoed by a staff union when the NAAC team arrived on the campus. In the second cycle, some very negative letters were sent to the NAAC by the varsity employees team before their visits," said Prof K P Muraleedharan, commerce and management studies department.

The varsity will have a new vice-chancellor by the time the NAAC peer team visits as the term of incumbent M Abdul Salam will end in August.

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