On Thursday, the first day of the seminar organised by the UK-India Education and Research Initiative, Alphonse, who read out UGC chairman Sukhadeo Thorat's speech, said it was imperative to make accreditation ``mandatory for all universities -- Central, state, public or private -- and all colleges in order to understand their present status''. He pointed out that several educational institutions had woefully inadequate physical infrastructure and poor quality teachers. ``The fact that only 10% of colleges rated are A grade speaks of the weak infrastructure,'' he said.

On the sidelines of the conference, Alphonse said that UGC also planned to launch a new scheme -- Quality Reduction Gap and Support to Young Universities -- ``to provide the push to institutions to better their academic and physical infrastructure''. Colleges with a low accreditation are likely to receive funds so that they can move up the ladder, he added.

How soon can accreditation be made mandatory? Outgoing NAAC director V Prasad said that while the required legislation to do this is a long-winded process, UGC could start an incentive system by linking development funds to accreditation. Colleges would thus be encouraged to call the NAAC team over. Apart from this, NAAC itself will have to be strengthened and augmented with units all over the country.