The Visva-Bharati Univerisity was awarded a B+ grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) after their Peer Team visited the campus from November 23 to 26. This is a slight deterioration from the B++ Grade they were awarded in 2015. That year, the university missed the A Grade by a few points and secured a CGPA of 2.82. This year's CGPA is not out yet.
The NAAC team that visited the institute was allegedly dissatisfied with the Vice-Chancellor's report and said that neither were reports submitted properly nor were the previous NAAC visit's suggestions implemented. "This was bound to happen. In the last three years, no effort was made for the improvement of infrastructure, streamlining the administration, important positions have not been filled up, the website is outdated," said the VBU Faculty Association.
Senior professors said that the NAAC team were dissatisfied with a number of things during their three-day visit that ended on November 26. "An academic and administrative audit has not been done by VBU. CBCS is not being followed properly. Credit transfer has not been implemented either. IQAC is not active enough, even though this committee is supposed to take the leading role in the development of academic activities of the university," said the professor.
"The IQAC is supposed to hold meetings every fortnight, however, the IQAC here meets only once or twice a year. The last meeting was held in September 2020. They also mentioned that there should be departmental Quality Assessment Cells (DQAC) for proper quality regulation. They were also displeased to see that no 'action taken' report was submitted in response to the observations and suggestions made by previous NAAC peer review in 2015," he added.
To top this off, some of the professors also alleged that departments that had a tiff with VC Dr Bidyut Chakrabarty have specifically been excluded from interacting with the NAAC team. The interaction with the students and researchers has also been subject to a slight controversy after the notice did not mention a venue for the interaction this time. Dr Chakrabarty's tenure, ever since he took charge in November 2018, has been marred with controversies and constant clashes with the staff and students. The VC has taken some kind of action against at least 300 staff members in these years of his tenure.
