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SAAC nod must for colleges

Council on model of NAAC from January.

Thiruvananthapuram: State Assessment and Accreditation Council (SAAC) on the model of National Assessment Council (NAAC) will come into being in January.

The governing council meeting of the Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) presided over by higher education minister K. T. Jaleel here on Wednesday took this decision.

All colleges, including the self-financed, can apply for SAAC accreditation from January 1.

Only colleges with SAAC accreditation will get new courses, additional seats and financial assistance.

SAAC will function under the KSHEC. The norms and matters related to the SAAC will be ready before December.

The minister said accreditation of more than one agency was advantageous to higher education institutions.

The meeting also decided to form a faculty training centre for the newly recruited teachers. In the first phase, social science and science stream students will get trained.

The KSHEC will organise a national education conference inviting education ministers of states to discuss central government policies in the education sector in January.

As a prelude, there will be a national seminar attended by prominent academicians including Nobel laureate Amartya Sen in December.
The fee for international students will be unified for all the universities in the state as sought by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. The state will also consider making their fee equivalent to that of native students.

A committee of Kannur University vice-chancellor Gopinath Ravindran and MG University VC Sabu Thomas will study the issue, he said.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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