The evaluation system for the engineering courses and the institutes providing them are set to be overhauled completely with more emphasis on the actual performance of students in industries rather than physical infrastructure and faculty.

And this revamping has to be done within two years if India wants to become a full member of the Washington Accord, whereby the Indian engineering degrees would be treated at par with similar degrees across the world, sources in All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) told Deccan Herald.

Even the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology, which are at present not covered by the accreditation system, would have to be brought under it by 2009 as per the conditions of the accord, he said.

The Washington Accord is an agreement between the bodies responsible for accrediting professional engineering degree programs in each of the signatory countries. It recognises the substantial equivalency of programs accredited by those bodies, and recommends that graduates of accredited programs in any of the signatory countries be recognised by the other countries as having met the academic requirements for entry to the practice of engineering.

Signed in 1989 Japan, US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea are the full members.

The National Board of accreditation (NBA), a body under the AICTE for accreditation to institutes and programmes on engineering, management and pharmacy, has recently been inducted as a provisional member by the Washington Accord countries.

“The Indian accreditation board, which has won this recognition bypassing China, has to really work hard as the entire thrust of the accreditation system would have to be changed from input-based system to an output-based one,” he said.

But in case India could make it in 2009, the engineering degrees conferred upon by the Indian institutes would be considered at par with those from the developed nations and Indian students would not have to sit for a separate examination or enroll for training courses for getting jobs or practicing licenses in those countries.
The present accreditation process in the country takes into account the faculty, physical infrastructure, number of computers and books available in the institute providing technical education. The process, which is separately undertaken for each programme in an institute, also takes into account the research materials produced by the faculty and the financial resources of the institute.

A three-day visit to the institute by a team of experts in relevant fields also takes place, who give numbers on a 1,000-point scale. For a three-year accreditation the score should be 650 or more and for a five-year one it should be minimum 750.

But the Washington Accord countries insisted on qualitative parameters focusing on the actual performance of the students in industries and research organisations.

“We will invite experts from the US-based Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology, who will train our assessors and help them develop tools for evaluating the actual performance of the students,” the official said.
“These Indian experts, in turn will impart training to a team of professors, who will work for us for changing the accreditation system,” he said.