Varsity gives zero to NAAC manual

November 12: The Mumbai University's Department of Statistics has severely criticised the manner in which the National Assessment and Accre...

November 12: The Mumbai University8217;s Department of Statistics has severely criticised the manner in which the National Assessment and Accreditation Council NAAC has been collecting data from various universities in the country in order to rank them.

Terming the questionnaire which is being circulated to varsities as tedious and unfocussed8217;, professors of statistics at Kalina have said it cannot under any circumstances help in the grading of different Indian universities. This is reportedly the first time that such a large-scale ranking project has been undertaken by the NAAC. Established in 1994 by the University Grants Commission, NAAC8217;s responsibility is to assess and accredit public and private institutions of higher learning based on certain parameters which reflect the function of the institution in totality.

Various departments in the varsity were directed to fill up the questionnaire. The general reaction, though, was that it would take at least two days to fill the forms up by ignoring regular academic work.

8220;The NAAC questionnaire, which is also called a self-study manual8217; for improving the quality of education, cannot in any way help in the ranking of varsities, as most of the questions need to be standardised and reformulated for proper analysis,8221; said Dr U J Dixit and Dr R G Shenoy of the statistics department. They elaborated that normally for statistical analysis and comparison, one has to frame questions with multiple-choice answers so that these answers can easily be slotted in categories for further study. For instance, two questions read: 8220;How does the department keep itself abreast of the changing needs of its geographical locations?8221; 8220;Are the goals and objectives in tune with national demands?8221; Commented Dr Shenoy, 8220;One can answer such questions in either one line or 1,000 words. How do you compare two universities on the basis of these answers? We feel that the various departments of statistics in the universities can co-ordinate amongst themselves to do the work of assessment of quality of their varsities.8221;

They pointed that the lengthy 46-page questionnaire comprising 354 questions, had only 17 objective questions. Questions starting with How8217; and What8217; are 50 and 75 respectively and the other questions which can only get descriptive, essay-type answers are almost 60 in number.

8220;If you want to study and rate the quality of a particular department, you have to give due weightage to its three branches of teaching, research and consultancy. We feel that answering NAAC8217;s questions is an exercise in futility and can not improve departmental efficiency,8221; stated Dr Dixit.

However, NACC director Professor Arun S Nigavekar said, 8220;I feel that our self-study manual is well-framed. In case some departments want to make changes, they are welcome to do so.8221; Till date, around 30 Indian universities have approached the NAAC to be officially graded. The final report is slated to be completed by February next year.