NAAC team flags issues in delivering quality education in premier universities in Odisha.

A high level committee of NAAC has visited several universities of Odisha
and noticed various irregularities in both academic and infrastructural spheres .
The committee first met the minister of higher education of Odisha and then it
met the secretary of high education . Then they proceeded to Utkal university ,
Ramadevi Womens’ university both in Bhubaneswar . Next day they visited the
oldest higher education institution of the state , the Ravenshaw University at
Cuttack . According to some sources , the committee did not find any significant
quality in the lectures that were delivered to students in the daily classes . It was
observed by the committee that there were acute shortage of staff in various
departments of the universities and in most of the departments there are
contract teachers working on daily remuneration basis . The committee asked “
Why the higher education ministry does not recruit lecturers on regular basis ?”
In turn the secretary of the higher education answered that they were in process
to recruit lecturers in regular basis and once the process is over it shall be done
regular basis .
The committee also visited the Sambalpur University at Burla , but in
contrast it found that the university has a better campus with better faculty
members in almost all the departments . One of the higher education officials
anonymously said that there are conflicts between the higher education
administration and administration of the respective universities . The committee
also raised concern regarding infrastructural issues in some of the universities.
The NAAC ( National Assessment and Accredition Committee ) funded by
the UGC ( University Grants Commission ) and based in Bengaluru is the premier
committee that oversees the academic and infrastructural preparedness of the
universities across India and recommendation of the committee is a prerequisite
for granting gradation such as A, A+ ,B, B etc to universities and higher education
institutions . It may be mentioned here that some of the state universities of
Odisha have not fared well in the national ranking system like NIRF ( National
Institutional ranking framework ) .