Panjab University fails to submit annual reports to NAAC, may affect its grades
With an aim to ensure better grades, the varsity set up a special cell in 2015 but since then no annual report was submitted
The Punjab University has failed to submit the Annual Quality Assurance Report (AQAR) to the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) since 2015, which can prove to be a setback for the varsity in the next NAAC visit.
With an aim to ensure better rankings and grades, the Internal Quality Assessment Cell (IQAC) of the PU was set up in 2015 and since then no annual report was submitted to the NAAC.
Ashish Jain, director of IQAC, Panjab University, said, “It is true that the AQAR has not been submitted by IQAC so far.”
The submission of the AQAR is the prime function of the Internal Quality Assessment Cell (IQAC) of the varsity.
In 2015, PU had managed to get ‘A’ grade, but the failure in submitting the annual report to NAAC may affect the points of the university in the next visit of NAAC in 2022. “The university has already lost the points by not submitting the AQAR report in the last few years,” said a university official.
Institutions accredited by NAAC need to submit an annual self-reviewed progress report, Annual Quality Assurance Report (AQAR), to NAAC through its IQAC.
The AQAR report is to detail the tangible results achieved in key areas, specifically identified by the IQAC at the beginning of the academic year. It is also mandatory for the institution to upload the annual report on its official website.
To negate the effect of not submitting the AQAR report since 2015, the IQAC of the varsity had set a deadline of October 30 for the submission of desired data by all the departments.
“We have started to compile the data from the departments and after compiling the data we will request the vice-chancellor to get it validated for their appropriateness and completeness so that it can be uploaded on the NAAC website,” said Jain.
Former director of IQAC, Panjab University, Rajiv Lochan, said, “We had collected the data from the departments in 2016 and 2017 and it was even approved by the IQAC committee, but I do not know why it was not uploaded on the NAAC website.”
Vice-chancellor Panjab University, professor Raj Kumar said, “It is worrying that the annual report has not been submitted. We are facing a lot of issues because of this. The present IQAC is working on it and I am monitoring it.”
