BHUBANESWAR: Engineering colleges will now need an accreditation by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) for their degrees to be recognised outside Odisha.
Vice-Chancellor of Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) SP Patnaik on Thursday said they have decided to make NBA accreditation mandatory for 158 engineering colleges affiliated to BPUT. The colleges will be asked to apply for NBA grade from August.
As per the new accreditation policy of the Ministry of Human Resources Development, NBA accreditation is necessary if certificates of engineering colleges of a State need to be recognised in other States within the country and abroad.
“The new outcome-based accreditation policy aims to make engineering studies more industry-oriented and on par with technical education imparted across the globe. All engineering institutes under BPUT will have to obtain accreditation for various disciplines they are providing. For example, if a student pursuing mechanical engineering in CV Raman College in Bhubaneswar wants to complete his fourth year of BTech degree in an international university, he would be able to do so if the mechanical engineering discipline of the college has NBA accreditation. The institutes, which want to compete with colleges at international level, have to seek NBA accreditation,” said Patnaik, while addressing mediapersons here. Further, NBA-accredited institutions will be preferred by funding agencies for releasing grants for research as well as expansion.
There are two types of engineering colleges in the State - Tier I (autonomous colleges who frame their syllabus) and Tier II (colleges which depend on BPUT for syllabus).
A college will need to score at least 750 out of 1,000 to get fresh NBA accreditation for a discipline under the new policy. For this, they will be judged against nine indices such as curriculum, students’ participation, financial support and faculty contribution, among others.
The NBA will provide two kinds of accreditation - a provisional for two years and another for five years depending on the score.
The VC added that the new policy is a part of the Washington Accord, which helps create equivalence of engineering degree programmes and allows Indians to practise engineering in other signatory countries. India had become a signatory to the accord in 2014.
The BPUT will on Friday organise a workshop on NBA accreditation among principals of 158 engineering colleges to educate them about new outcome-based accreditation system adopted by the NBA.
New Design
■ NBA accreditation is must if certificates of engineering colleges need to be recognised outside the State
■ NBA will provide a quality seal that would differentiate institutions from their peers at national level
■ NBA will provide 2 kinds of accreditation - a provisional for 2 years and another for 5 years depending on the score