For institutions to apply for accreditation, they have to meet certain pre-qualifying criteria with the Board.
Fifteen per cent of the various departments in engineering colleges across the country have failed to get accreditation from National Board of Accreditation (NBA) in the last two years. NBA accreditation is given to specific programmes run by professional institutions like Engineering, Management and Pharmacy, which then decides government's criteria of giving more funding for a government institution and increase in seats for private and government institutes.
For institutions to apply for accreditation, they have to meet certain pre-qualifying criteria with the Board. According to the data shared by NBA, 10 per cent of the departments that had applied were not even able to fulfil those criteria, which included basis things like having a 1:20 teacher to student ratio, either two professors or one professor and an associate professor in the department.
"Everyone is aware that the condition of engineering education is not good in our country but many don't know that the quality is accessed on the basis of departments as well. For example, an IIT might be the best engineering institution in the country but its Civil Engineering or Electronic Engineering Department might not be able to get an NBA Accreditation. Even as it is tough to get an NBA accreditation, one expects at least an IIT department to get it," said a senior official in NBA.
According to sources in the Board, the central government is now planning to link autonomy of technical institutions to their NBA accreditation so that the institutions work more on improving the quality of their departments.
"Even when NBA accreditation is given to a programme or department and not to an institution as a whole, the Ministry of Human Resource Department is working on a plan to link accreditation to autonomy. This would depend on the number of programmes that have been given accreditation or the points that they have been awarded to them. Ministry feels by doing so, institutions will work harder to improve every department, " said a source in the Ministry.
The accreditation is given for 3-6 years after which departments take their own time in reapplying for the accreditation but now the Board is going to renew it only on the basis of the compliance report from the departments. "They will get accreditation only if the compliance report is up to the mark, so that there is a continuous process followed by these institutions," said the officer in NBA.
Linking autonomy
According to sources in the Board, the central government is now planning to link autonomy of technical institutions to their NBA accreditation so that the institutions work more on improving the quality of their departments.
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