Vet varsity fails to get ICAR accreditation

The College of Animal Biotechnology at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU) here has failed to secure accreditation from the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) as some of the courses at the college were deemed ineligible.

According to ICAR, the degree programmes that failed to meet the accreditation criteria include PhD in Veterinary Physiology, PhD in Dairy Engineering, MSc (Agriculture) in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, MVSc in Veterinary Biotechnology, PhD in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, and PhD in Veterinary Biotechnology.

During its assessment, ICAR discovered that no students were enrolled in the PhD Veterinary Physiology and PhD Dairy Engineering programs.

ICAR highlighted that MSc (Agriculture) in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology was not considered for accreditation because both degrees are not Broad Subject Matter Area (BSMA) compliant.

GADVASU Vice Chancellor Inderjit Singh, said, “The ICAR recently told us that some of our courses were not being given accreditation. However, we will challenge the decision.”

He revealed that the ICAR told the varsity to rename MSc Molecular Biology and Biotechnology to MSc Agricultural Biotechnology. “This is not in our mandate. PAU already has a course on that. We deal with Animal sciences only.”

“Our PhD courses have been accredited as there wasn’t any student enrolled in them at the time. But how can this be grounds for refusing accreditation,” he asked.

He also criticized the BSMA document as very problematic. “There are many lacunas in the document. We will name our courses as per our specializations.”

Established in February 2019, the College of Animal Biotechnology is a constituent college of GADVASU. The college offers a variety of programmes, including a graduate BTech (Biotechnology), postgraduate programs such as MVSc (Veterinary Biotechnology), MSc (Molecular Biology and Biotechnology), MSc (MBBT) with a specialization in Animal Biotechnology, and Ph.D. (Veterinary Biotechnology)/PhD (MBBT). Additionally, it provides a six-week short course on bioinformatics and a one-year PG diploma in Molecular Biology and Genomics.