778 colleges under University of Mumbai to be audited by govt's 'Special Task Force'

In a move aimed to improve the standards of around 778 colleges and institutes affiliated to the University of Mumbai (MU), the state government has appointed a special 'Task Force' to conduct an academic audit of all the institutes.

As per a Government Resolution (GR) released on Thursday, a special task force has been formed with a team of four external experts for the purpose. The committee is headed by Vikaschandra Rastogi, project director, Nanaji Deshmukh Krishi Sanjivani Prakalp and consists of three other members.

The state level committee has to submit its report to the government through the governor within three months after the resolution. "The audit would help address the loopholes in the colleges which would help the overall ranking of the university" said a senior official from the government.

The resolution comes a few months after the governor of the state and the Chancellor of the University, C Vidyasagar Rao expressed the need to have an audit. The aim is to understand the infrastructural, teaching, accreditation and affiliation status of institutes within MU after the mess of onscreen marking that left students in the lurch highlighting the lacunae in the functioning of the varsity.

As per the GR, the task force would evaluate colleges on the basis of some key parameters including – infrastructure, quality of teachers and teaching, curriculum development and status of affiliation. The task force can also devise a standard operating procedure (SOP) to come up with a set of norms for institutes.

The GR states that the committee should submit a report of the findings to the state level committee. The state level committee would then act on the inadequacies found if any.

In 2015, the MU had started academic audits of its affiliated colleges, an initiative that fizzled out in the next couple of years.

How It Will Work

The task force will visit colleges affiliated to MU and check if they have fulfilled the criteria stated by UGC, CoA, AICTE etc and submit a report.

Reports of all inspected colleges will be sent to a state level committee along with specific details of violations.

State level committee will study the task force report come up with an 'action plan' to address the problem.

The state level committee will have the right to recommend action to be taken against erring colleges