A seven-member National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) team today visited the Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) for physical verification of the self-study report submitted by the university.

The team, which is headed by Arun K Pujari and includes Santa Ram Joshi, Telagam Chetty Tripura Sundari, Vijaya Bhaskar Raju K, Ajitava Raychaudhuri, Balabhim Biradar and Krishnan Krishnan, is on a three-day visit to the HPU.

It will evaluate the performance of the university on the basis of curriculum, faculty, infrastructure, e-governance, research and patents, and best teaching practices.

The team inspected Sanskrit, English, History, Visual Arts, Commerce, Tribal Studies, Journalism, Vocational Studies, Geography, Bio-technology, Physics, Maths, Chemistry, Hindi and Sociology departments. The assessment is based on 70 per cent self-study report and 30 per cent physical evaluation.

After a drop in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) last year, the HPU management had issued instructions to all the departments to fill the gaps and rectify the shortcomings to improve NAAC grading from A to A+.

One of the reasons for which the HPU was awarded Grade A was to become the first university in the country in implementing the semester system under Rashtriya Uchchattar Shiksha Abhiyan. However, the state government and the university has reverted back to the annual examination system, creating several problems for the students and other stakeholders.

Performance criteria