Mumbai: In a significant relief to hundreds of students and colleges, Maharashtra’s Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Dada Patil on Thursday announced a six-month extension for colleges in the state to complete the mandatory assessment or reassessment process by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

The announcement follows a day after memorandums submitted by members affiliated with the Aaditya Thackeray-led Yuva Sena to Patil and University of Mumbai (MU) Vice Chancellor Dr Ravindra Kulkarni, demanding the immediate revocation of the admission freeze imposed on 229 colleges affiliated to MU for the academic year 2025–26.

On May 7, MU had declared a suspension of the first-year undergraduate admission process for these 229 colleges, citing their failure to comply with mandatory accreditation and governance norms.

The affected institutions had either failed to obtain or renew their accreditation from NAAC or the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and had not constituted the College Development Committee (CDC), as required under the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016.

The university also stated that a fine of Rs10,000 had been imposed on each of the non-compliant institutions. The decision, MU said, was taken after serious deliberation and was approved by its Management Council.

Patil, while addressing the issue, said that the decision to grant an extension was made keeping in mind the academic interests of students and to prevent disruption to their education. “To avoid any adverse impact on students and to give colleges a fair opportunity, a relaxation of six months is being granted for the NAAC assessment or reassessment process,” he said.

He added that accreditation is mandatory for all eligible affiliated colleges under the state’s non-agricultural universities and must be renewed every five years to ensure the academic quality and standards of institutions. Maharashtra, he noted, leads the country in NAAC accreditation.

The minister further said that due to the impending implementation of a new Binary Accreditation system, the NAAC office in Bengaluru is currently upgrading its online portal. He directed colleges to initiate the accreditation process immediately after the updated portal becomes operational and instructed universities to collect written assurances from the concerned colleges and begin the required proceedings without delay.

Welcoming the announcement, the Yuva Sena said in a statement, "Keeping students’ interests at the forefront, our Senate members submitted a representation to the Vice Chancellor and to Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil, urging that while colleges should be held accountable for not obtaining NAAC certificate, the admission process must not be halted. We are pleased that the Minister took cognisance of our appeal and directed the university to withdraw the suspension order.”

“This decision has reopened the doors of opportunity for hundreds of students who were at risk of being left out," the statement added.