Warangal: Kakatiya University administration gears up for NAAC visit

Established on August 19, 1976, the varsity is the second largest in the State, and it was first accredited with ‘B ’ Grade by the NAAC in 2003.

Warangal: Officials at the Kakatiya University (KU), Warangal, are gearing up for the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) Peer-team visit, which is likely to happen next month.

Established on August 19, 1976, the varsity is the second largest in the State, and it was first accredited with ‘B ’ Grade by the NAAC in 2003. In the second the cycle in 2009, the NACC accorded ‘A’ Grade, and it was re-accredited with ‘A’ Grade in 2017.

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The varsity is offering programmes through eight faculties and 27 departments and with a network of 18 constituent Colleges and 485 affiliated colleges covering three erstwhile districts, Warangal, Khammam and Adilabad. It is also offering 222 academic programmes to meet the educational needs for 2.5 lakhs students. In addition to this, the School of Distance Learning and Continuing Education (SDLCE) is offering 25 academic programmes for nearly 30,000 students covering 50 learner support centres through distance mode.

Since the NAAC rating helps the institution get more funds from Central agencies like University Grants Commission (UGC) apart from improving its credibility among academic institutions in the country.

Speaking to ‘Telangana Today’, KU Vice-Chancellor Prof Thatikonda Ramesh said that they had already submitted all reports like the self-study report (SSR) required for the visit of the NACC team.

“We expect that the NACC team would inspect the varsity in March,” he said, adding that they had already completed works related to improvement of the basic amenities and other infrastructure. While an internal road between the Administrative building and SDLCE building is getting widened, the college buildings are whitewashed and painted as a part of the repair works. The varsity has allotted Rs eight crore for the repairs and development works. However, sources said that the expenditure would touch Rs 10 crore.

Since the varsity is facing staff crunch, particularly at the level of professors, 12 retired faculty members have been recently recruited as the Adjunct Professors in an attempt to avoid losing the ‘A’ Grade.

The NAAC will check all the varsity’s activities like Teaching-Learning and Evaluation, Research, Consultancy and Extension, Infrastructure and Learning Resources, Student Support and Progression Governance, Leadership and Management and Innovations and Best Practices.

“Though the teacher-student ratio is less at the varsity, we are trying to reduce the gap by recruiting the retired teaching faculty. As 12 retired teachers have already been taken up as the Adjunct professors, we are also going to recruit some more faculty members to ensure there will be at least one professor in each department in this month,” said an Executive Committee (EC) member. He, however, said that they were making all efforts to retain the A-Grade by the NAAC. “But, we are not sure of that due to staff crunch,” he said.