NBA seeks international accreditation for Indian B.Tech degrees

By Ruchi Shrimali

The National Board of Accreditation (NBA) will soon become a permanent member of the Washington Accord for International Accreditation in June 2013. Functioning under the aegis of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), NBA aims to bring Indian B.Tech degrees at par with those offered by the US, the UK, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and seven other nations. This will help engineers from India to find better job and higher studies opportunities abroad.

India is already a provisional member of the Accord since 2007. From 2013, the graduates of the engineering programs recognised by any of the signatory bodies will be considered as the members by the Accord. However, the Washington Accord will audit the accreditation system of India before granting it full-member status.

Mr. Hu Hanrahan, the chair of the Washington Accord, refused to commit to a timeline for India becoming a full member during his visit to India for the first World Summit on Accreditation 2012. However, he did say that the process of membership is under way.

Even if India does get the full membership, only about 20% of about 4,000 engineering institutes in India fulfill the necessary requirements that it entails. Mr. Lock Kai Sang, ex-President of Institution of Engineers from Singapore, which is mentoring India for the accreditation, thinks ‘there is a lot of implementation work that needs to be carried on outcome assessment and accreditation'. Read more

About 140 engineering institutes have applied for international accreditation under the new framework. NBA may also implement two-tier system of accreditation - one for institutes aiming for international accreditation which will have benchmarks at par with the world, and another for other colleges that may make do with general or domestic accreditation which may adhere to lower and less stringent standards.

HRD Minister Mr. Kapil Sibal has also made a proposal that it should be mandatory for every higher educational institution in India to be accredited by authorities. The new Bill proposes provisions that all new institutions well need to be accredited before they start their admission process while the existing educational institutions will have to finish up the accreditation process within three years. Known as the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill, it also proposes to set up an authority to register and monitor accreditation agencies. Know the details about the new Bill