Gauhati University Heading for Greater Academic Autonomy

* NAAC awards prestigious A Grade to the varsity

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Aug 19: Gauhati University is heading for greater academic autonomy after the varsity was accorded with the prestigious A Grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

The region’s premiere university has been credited with a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 3.04 in the list of 25 higher education institutions recommended for accreditation by the NAAC recently. In the NAAC report, GU got the highest point for infrastructures. GU’s overall development was evaluated on the basis of quantitative and qualitative metric of the NAAC. The validity of A Grade status of GU will be valid for five years with effect from August 16, 2018.

The quantitative evaluation includes submission of statistical information like placement ratio against the number of passed-out students, percentages of curriculum revision in each department, among others. The qualitative metric includes the overall performance of each department.

A senior teacher at GU told this reporter that the university may soon be able to launch new departments, courses, schools and centres without the approval of the University Grants Commission (UGC), albeit in self-financing mode.

He said the UGC recently approved a new set of regulations, termed as the UGC (Categorization of Universities for Grant of Graded Autonomy) Regulations-2017.

“Under the new regulations, universities across the country have been classified into three categories based on their NAAC’s accreditation and National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings. The first two categories will be accorded greater autonomy by the UGC. Gauhati University, the oldest university in the Northeast, is eligible for inclusion in Category I since the varsity has now A Grade status by NAAC and figured in the NIRF’s list of top 50 institutions,” the teacher said.

Once GU is included in Category I, it will be able to open research parks, incubation centres and university society linkage centres in self-financing mode either on its own or in partnership with private entities, without UGC’s approval, the teacher said.