A team from National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is scheduled to visit Government Degree College (GDC) Baramulla in mid-September for two day inspection of the college and subsequently renew the grading of the college.
Also, a three-member team from University Grants Commission (UGC) is also scheduled to visit the College for inspection and grant autonomous status to the College. The team from UGC has however not given any particular date for its visit but is likely to come in coming months.
“The visit was scheduled earlier in April but was delayed due to COVID-19. Now the UGC team is likely to visit the college in coming months,” Principal GDC Baramulla, Prof Mushtaq Ahmad Lone told Greater Kashmir.
“But NAAC team will come on September 15-16 this year for its two day inspection of the College to renew the NAAC grading,” he said.
Notably, the last NAAC inspection of GDC Baramulla was done in 2015 and the institution was given ‘A’ grade. This year the college will get a fresh grading from the NAAC.
The NAAC is a UGC funded autonomous body that assesses and accredits higher education Institutions-Degree Colleges and Universities in India.
A college being accredited signifies that it has met certain standards of excellence across its operations. Apart from making an educational institution eligible for grants from the union government there are major benefits for students if a college has an accreditation.
On account of this, GDC Baramulla has maintained good standards in terms of academics and infrastructure upgradation as well.
In 2015 we were offering PG courses only in one subject but now the college offers PG admissions in three subjects,” Prof. Lone said. Apart from PG Mathematics, the college offers PG course in Psychology and MCA.
The college has also converted all the classrooms as digital or smart classrooms besides the enrollment of students has also increased from 2015-2020, he said.
“We have also introduced five new subjects at undergraduate level for our students,” he said.
The newly introduced subjects are Bioinformatics, Clinical Biochemistry, Anthropology, Social Work and Islamic Studies.
“We have also constructed two big seminar halls for organizing different workshops and seminars for students and the faculty,” he said. Importantly, GDC Baramulla has an active alumni association which is known as Varmul College Alumni Association’. The college is connected to EDUSAT on the national beam maintained by ISRO and EDUSAT as well.
The college has also been granted the status of College with Potential Excellence (CPE) by the UGC in 2015. Being CPE, the college gets special grants from UGC.
“Since 2015, we have received grants worth Rs 105 crore under CPE from UGC. Besides, we are also eligible for RUSA grants as well,” Prof. Mushtaq Lone said.
Notably, under the new rules of UGC, only NAAC accredited colleges are provided funding under various components including infrastructural development, construction of multi crore academic blocks and other faculty development programmes.
GDC Baramulla is one of the oldest colleges in J&K which was founded by the Catholic Missionaries at Baramulla, by Father Ignatius Brower and Rev. Father Simmons in 1905 as an English medium school.
It was upgraded to High School in 1913 and then gradually upgraded to the status of Intermediate College in 1938 and eventually to Degree College in 1943.
GDC Baramulla was affiliated to Punjab University Lahore. It was closed on October 27 of 1947 and re-opened on June 28 of 1954 as an Intermediate college, affiliated to the then University of Jammu and Kashmir. It was further upgraded to Degree College in 1956 and was subsequently taken over by the State government on April 1 of 1963.
