The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), an autonomous institution under the University Grants Commission (UGC), has stopped accepting applications from pharmacy colleges for accreditation purpose from this year.

The reason cited is that it is now engaged in the process of developing a Manual for Health Sciences (MHS), the Council said in a circular sent to pharmacy institutions. This crucial decision of the Council will force the pharmacy colleges which are running post graduate programmes to apply for accreditation from the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) under the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

As per the existing rules, an institution which wants to run a post graduate programme in pharmacy needs to be accredited either by NBA functioning under the AICTE or NAAC under the UGC. Since NAAC has stopped accepting applications, the only agency to approve the standards of the institutions is the AICTE controlled National Board of Accreditation.

Source: http://www.pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=110009&sid=1