Just 40 private colleges accredited in TN

Tamil Nadu's private arts and science colleges have a poor track record compared to the government and aided institutions in the domain of accreditation.



"Only 40 out of the 498 self-financing arts and science colleges have obtained accreditation from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) as per statistics compiled as of last year. This means just 8.2% of the private colleges in the state are accredited," former University of Madras vice-chancellor S P Thyagarajan disclosed on Wednesday.
Participating at a function to unveil the Tamil Nadu State Academic Audit and Accreditation Council (TNSAAC) here, Thyagarajan, who is also its honorary chairman, said, in contrast 62 out of the 69 government arts and science colleges in the state were accredited by NAAC. Likewise 129 out of the 162 government-aided arts and science colleges were assessed and accredited by the NAAC.
At the same time, among the accredited institutions only 20% of the private colleges had obtained the A Grade or scored a point of 75% and above. In the case of government-aided institutions the percentage of colleges figuring in this category was 38%.
"This shows there is a need for establishing the TNSAAC to enhance quality and excellence in higher educational institutions by establishing internal quality cells in all colleges," he said addressing principals of several colleges.
Inaugurating the website www.tnsaac.org , higher education minister K Ponmudy pointed out that while the government can invest in infrastructure and facilitate increase in intake of students, it was up to the teachers to bring in quality and take institutions to greater heights. He hoped that the TNSAAC will perform its role of an accreditation agency independently and assess institutions without bias.
Earlier Ponmudy chaired a meeting of vice-chancellors of arts and science universities and Tamil Nadu State Council of Higher Education officials to discuss the incorporation of chapters on Classical Tamil for students of all undergraduate programmes as advised by the chief minister's during the recent World Classical Tamil meet. "Accordingly, Tamil prose, poetry and composition and the history of classical Tamil will be included in the Tamil subject for all students," he said.