Now ‘A’ rating to 17 of 38 deemed to-be universities, earlier found to be deficient

National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC), the autonomous body established by University Grants Commission (UGC) has given a near-green signal to all 38 deemed universities which were blacklisted in 2009 because they had failed to meet a range of quality parameters required.

In a report submitted last month to the Supreme Court, 17 out of these 38 deemed universities were placed in Category A, while one - Nehru Gram Bharti University in Allahabad – was placed in Category C.

This has come almost a year after the UGC report in which it gave a clean chit to all except seven of these deemed universities, which were blacklisted six years ago. Even these seven universities were placed in categories A or B by NAAC.

The universities which were awarded category A rating are Bharath University (Chennai), Maharishi Markandeshwar University (Ambala), and Manav Rachna International University (Faridabad). Meanwhile, Ponnaiyah Ramajayam Institute of Science and Technology (PRIST) University (Thanjavur); Vinayaka Missions University (Salem), Academy of Maritime Education and Training (Chennai), and Institute of Advanced Studies in Education (Sardarshahar), got a Category B rating.

A, B and C categories refer to institutions that are considered very good, good and satisfactory, respectively, and are accredited, however, grade D is an 'unsatisfactory' rating and these universities are not accredited.

This latest review means that the deemed universities which were been declared severely quality deficient in 2009 by a committee headed by PN Tandon can be considered to be reprieved.

"With the Supreme Court accepting NAAC's new gradation, the human resource development ministry should instruct UGC to take all policy decisions based on NAAC accreditation and not the Tandon classification," Dr S Vaidhyasubramaniam, dean of SASTRA University in Thanjavur, told ET.

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