Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, appealed to state-funded colleges and university administration to toil harder to bag higher grading from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), in a video conference on Tuesday.

University's administration will be accredited with more funding from the central government if they perform better on the NAAC grading scale.

There is a total of 300 state-funded institutions for higher education in Kerala. Though only 29 of them have received accreditation from NAAC.

NAAC is an autonomous body under the university grants commission (UGC) which assays and grades various educational institutes of the country based on their overall pedagogical skills and performance.

Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, said in a video conference " Only institutions with higher NAAC grading are eligible for funds from the Central Government under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA).”

Under the RUSA scheme, central government allots a respective amount of monetary funds to higher institutions for further developments in state of art infrastructure and quality teaching. RUSA scheme was launched in the year 2013 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD).

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Project Inauguration

On Tuesday, Chief Minister Vijayan inaugurated 47 building projects at different higher institutions in Kerala. An aggregate of INR 64 crore was spent on the construction of infrastructures which mainly included labs, libraries, smart classrooms, girls’ hostels, incubation centers, solar energy labs, and community skill centers.

 Chief Minister also inaugurated different buildings at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Kannur and MG, and Calicut University. Fifteen government arts and science colleges and three Community skill parks are also comprehended with new infrastructures.

The Chief Minister also informed that Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) funding has been recognized for projects worth Rs.700 crore for academic and infrastructure advancement of higher institutes.

Chief Minister stated that the LDF government has committed to raise the standard of higher education and ensure social justice in the state. All inaugurated projects on Tuesday were part of the LDF government's commitment to improving the basic infrastructure.

 Accordingly, a state-level quality assurance cell has been established under the Department of Higher Education.

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