The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) awarded Bangalore University a historic A++ grade with a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 3.75 in its fourth accreditation cycle.
While BU had received A grade on three previous occasions, authorities said the university has become Karnataka’s first public varsity to achieve A++ grade.
"Very few universities in the country have gone for the fourth cycle. Nationally, after the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), we are the first to attain this landmark academic achievement," BU Vice-Chancellor Dr Jayakara S M said.
BU's A++ grade makes it eligible for various benefits from the University Grants Commission (UGC), including the offering of online courses, establishing off-campus centers within and outside India, applying for centers of excellence, and providing distance education programmes.
Dr Jayakara mentioned several factors that made BU get the A++ grade: patents, research publications, digital evaluation, choice-based credit system (CBCS) for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, more teaching faculty than other public universities — most of them holding PhDs — and scholarships, and other student programmes.
The vice-chancellor thanked all the staff and students for their unwavering support. He said: "I should thank all the teachers, non-teaching staff, students, and administration because this achievement is possible only with their dedicated efforts."
Regarding BU's absence from the top 100 universities identified by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), Dr Jayakara explained that it was due to technical reasons.