The government has asked top central universities to complete the accreditation process.
The issue came up at a conference of the vice chancellors of central universities chaired by HRD minister Kapil Sibal where there was “unanimous agreement regarding the need for accreditation of the varsities to advance academic quality and act as examples for the higher education sector in India,” said a HRD Ministry statement.
The development assumes significance given the fact that National Accreditation Regulatory Authority Bill, which mandates all institutes to seek accreditation, is stuck in Parliament, hampering government’s aim to ensure quality.
Central universities like Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamila Milia Islamia are some of the prestigious universities among others who are not accredited so far.
Providing benefit to the students, the meet also agreed to collaborate on student mobility by way of credit sharing, as well as sharing of courses between universities, faculty etc.
The problems faced by the Central Universities especially with regard to filling up the vacant faculty positions and autonomy regarding allocation of faculty posts was deliberated upon.
According to the statement, it was agreed that while individual problems could be settled through internal mechanisms, common problems like absence of pension portability under the national pension scheme in the central universities set up after 2004 could be taken up at the level of Government.
The central universities agreed to implement uniform accounting standard as recommended by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).
