690 varsities, 34k colleges have no accreditation

New Delhi: The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has not granted accreditation to at least 695 universities and more than 34,000 colleges nationwide, according to information provided to Parliament on Monday.

Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar provided the information in response to a written query in the Lok Sabha.

"As per information received from the UGC, out of the 1,113 universities and 43,796 colleges, NAAC has accredited 418 universities and 9,062 colleges," he said.

"To bring all the educational institutions, universities and colleges under the accreditation system, NAAC has considerably reduced the fee structure for assessment and accreditation," he said.

"The metrics and questions in the manual for self-study report for affiliated and constituent colleges have also been considerably reduced," Sarkar added. He claimed that 34,734 colleges are currently in operation without NAAC accreditation. All higher education institutions are expected to strive to achieve the highest level of accreditation during the next 15 years, according to the new National Education Policy (NEP).

The NAAC, an Inter-University Centre of the University Grants Commission, accredits universities and institutions (UGC).