INDIAN ENGINEERING education crossed a major milestone on June 13 when the country was admitted into the select club of the Washington Accord (WA) nations. Technically, the membership of WA was awarded to the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), Delhi (together with the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka) at a meeting of the International Engineering Alliance (IEA), the secretariat of the WA, in Wellington, New Zealand in May. But there’s a catch. Under the terms of admission, only the degrees awarded by India’s 220 Tier-I NBA-accredited colleges are eligible for equivalency. Some degree programmes of 15 colleges (mainly the 11 National Institutes of Technology) have already been granted equivalency by WA.
Academics in India believe the country’s admission in WA will enhance the employability of engineering graduates from Tier-I institutions and will also enable them to acquire legal protection while working in member nations. Prior to this, graduate engineers — except IIT grads — aspiring to practice abroad, had to fulfil certain requirements, in most cases, write an examination. Only engineers deputed abroad by Indian corporates were exempt from producing proof of WA accreditation.
“Washington Accord membership is a hallmark of quality and with India becoming a permanent signatory, graduates of NBA approved programmes of Tier-I engineering colleges are acknowledged as world class. It will end the discretionary power that bureaucrats abroad have to deny them the right to practice their trade in industrially developed countries,” says Shekhar Sanyal, director and country head, India, of the UK-based The Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET).
“Accreditation of engineering academic programmes is a key foundation for the practice of engineering at the professional level in each of the countries or territories covered by the accord,” says the preamble of WA (estb.1989). Promoted 25 years ago by the UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, over the years the membership of WA has been expanded to include premier accreditation authorities in Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, India and Sri Lanka.
In a congratulatory message to NBA, the recently appointed Union minister of human resource development Smriti Irani said: “This will ensure highest quality assurance standards to be implemented in our technical and engineering programmes and provide global mobility to our engineering graduates. Graduates having degrees, which have been so accredited, would have substantial international equivalence of their achievement levels across the signatory nations. This will substantially enhance their employment opportunities around the world.”
Although the HRD ministry has been knocking on the WA door since 2007, it was only after the NBA was severed from the corruption-tainted All India Council for Technical Education and transformed into an independent organisation for accrediting technical institutes of higher education in 2010, that its application began to be considered seriously by the IEA. In December-January 2013-14, IEA sent teams to conduct a comprehensive review and audit of NBA accreditation systems, submitting a positive report.
“If we’re able to cultivate a culture of quality through accreditation of institutions and study programmes, it will boost global demand for Indian engineering graduates,” says Prof. S.K. Kak,vice chancellor, Mahamaya Technical University, Noida, and member NBA.
However, amidst the euphoria, it’s important to note that only NBA accredited programmes of Tier-I colleges are eligible for equivalence under WA, and that colleges aspiring for equivalence are obliged to apply to NBA for assessment under WA norms. To that extent, the study programmes offered by Indian engineering colleges have been granted only limited approval, which means the vast majority of the country’s 3,500 engineering colleges have a long way to go before their certification is granted equivalence.
Autar Nehru (Delhi)