The National Board of Accreditation (NBA) has in place a new accreditation system with in-built mechanisms to make sure the quality is not compromised in the light of rapid expansion in higher education.
Even as NBA aims at becoming a permanent member of Washington Accord after introducing an improved accreditation framework, the first World Summit on Accreditation (WOSA-2012) is scheduled to take place in New Delhi from March 25 to 28.
Elaborating on the objectives of the summit, NBA member secretary D.K. Paliwal said the new accreditation system would be outcome-based with a comprehensive look at the engineering education, including the relevance of undergraduate courses offered at present in engineering colleges. “Whether the graduates churning out of classrooms are capable and competent to handle real-life engineering problems will be a focus area from now on,” Dr. Paliwal said.
Spearheading a quality regime, the NBA would work with other accreditation agencies and sign foreign accords for mutual acceptance of academic or professional qualifications awarded in India so that there would be global acceptance for Indian students, he said.
About 1,000 delegates are expected to register for the summit in New Delhi, and WOSA-2012 would create an environment for introducing global quality standards in Indian campuses.
The theme of the summit will be ‘Achieving excellence through accreditation' and representatives from accreditation agencies of various countries will participate.
According to Dr. Paliwal, the summit would result in setting a benchmark and evolve common teaching-learning processes.
“India must become a permanent signatory to the Washington Accord. Since we are recognised as a rising economic power, we cannot afford to be outside that Accord which brings quality standards to our campuses,” he stressed.
The process of giving accreditation to colleges and courses would be changed to bring transparency and credibility to the whole process. Applications for accreditation can be through online by institutions from March.
Evaluators to be engaged for accreditation would be given a thorough orientation by NBA. Those faculty members and experts who are keen to be in accreditation teams of the agency can express their willingness through online.
“Since there is a proliferation of technical institutions, we need to have quality checks. Quantity, no doubt, is important. But it should go along with quality,” he said.
To create awareness among technical institutions on how to elevate themselves in terms of quality under the new accreditation system, the NBA would conduct workshops across the country and a schedule for that would be announced soon.
More details about the New Delhi summit are available on website www.nba-wosa.in
