Utkal University's NAAC grade falls from A+ to A

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) degraded Utkal University’s rank from A+ to A in the recently released rankings. The CGPA score in each criterion has not been revealed yet, the NAAC assessment report highlighted the shortage of teaching and non-teaching staff, limited university-industry linkage and consultancy work, a lesser number of MoUs with international institutions and lack of diversity of students. 

Utkal University’s National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) grade has dropped from an A+ to an A in its third cycle of accreditation. The university has scored a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 3.16. In its last NAAC assessment in 2016, the university secured A+ grade with a CGPA score of 3.53 being the only public university in the state to do so.

The CGPA score in each criterion has not been revealed yet, but the NAAC assessment report pointed to the shortage of teaching and non-teaching staff, limited university-industry linkage and consultancy work, lesser number of MoUs with international institutions and lack of diversity of students for the downgrade. 

“The university encourages its faculties to undertake consultancy and has a consultancy cell which is a wholly-owned consulting division of Utkal University. But, the number of consultancy services is limited and the institution is yet to have a clear cut policy with regard to consultancy including revenue sharing,” the report said, as reported by Indian Express.

“The government is indirectly responsible for this because the autonomy has been taken away from the University. There is no point in appointing OAS officers as Registrars. An educational institution should be run by academicians only and not by bureaucrats. I fear, if the current trend continues, a time will come when we will see IAS officers as Vice-Chancellors,” said former VC of Utkal University, Binayak Rath, as reported by Odisha TV.

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