Bhubaneswar, Aug 18: The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) team will further visit Utkal University for reassessment of its grade.
Utkal University’s NAAC grade has dropped from an A+ to A. The fresh grade and CGPA were announced by NAAC in May which triggered widespread criticism. Soon, the university appealed to the NAAC for its re-evaluation.
We have appealed to the NAAC for a re-evaluation of the premier university of Odisha. A team will visit our university during the last week of September or the first week of October, said the university administration.
Notably, the university has scored an A grade with a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 3.16.
In its last NAAC assessment in 2016, the university secured an A+ grade with a CGPA score of 3.53.
The NAAC team has praised the varsity’s infrastructure and teaching facilities. However, the team found out that the university faces some major challenges - shortage of teaching and non-teaching staff, not many research papers, fewer innovations and publications, limited consultancy work, lack of diversity of students, and university-industry linkages.
The large number of vacancies has become a major problem for teaching and research activities at Utkal University. The university has been sanctioned 257 teaching posts. However, as many as 129 teaching posts are lying vacant in the largest varsity of Odisha.
Similarly, at least 667 non-teaching posts out of 980 sanctioned posts are lying vacant.
