National Board of Accreditation (NBA) is the only statutory body in India established under the act of parliament to assess quality of programmes from diploma to post-graduate levels of engineering and technology, management, pharmacy, architecture, hotel catering etc. Accreditation is voluntary and not compulsory although the international trend is that all institutions should undertake the accreditation path. The NBA accredits only programmes and degrees and not institutions like the National Assessment and Accreditation Council of the U.G.C.

India had been trying to become a full member of the Washington Accord so that the programmes or degrees that it accredits are given equivalence to those of the 12 developed countries of the Washington Accord members. It got provisional membership in 2007. The membership will also facilitate the country’s full membership of the Engineers Mobility Forum that will ensure cross border mobility of Technical Professionals

In order to achieve accreditation and international equivalence our educational institutions will have to improve their teaching and research capabilities. We cannot afford to be complacent. Our graduates today do not understand and comprehend what their responsibilities would be in their career e.g. our engineers today are not competent in mathematics/science and this is a barrier to engineering study. It is heartening that universities and management/business institutes in India are getting involved in research collaborations. Our focus on business process modelling and management as well as modelling for risk across the enterprise has to increase. Our understanding in the sphere of enterprise engineering, specifically Operations Research, Operations management and related manufacturing design research has to increase.

The NBA would be happy to collaborate and interact with various institutions of the country.

P. N. Srivastava

Chairman, NBA