IITs to get accredited by NBA The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are expected to get accredited by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), which is a leading accreditation organization in India. The IITs will conduct the review on their own and present their report to NBA. The IITs have also been instructed to better prepare themselves to feature prominently in premier global rankings of top education institutes including the “QS Rankings”. The IITs have come to the decision to continue with the current format of Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced (JEE-Advanced). The single IIT-JEE had been split into two parts in 2013, namely, the JEE-Mains and the JEE-Advanced. The decisions were revealed during an IIT Council meeting held on Monday, September 16, 2013. As per Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry officials, the possibility of IITs receiving accreditation will boost India’s chances of participating in the Washington Accord. As per IIT directors, the annual review is expected to be sufficient and aligned to the Washington Accord. The Washington Accord is an international agreement drawn by accrediting agencies from 14 nations that recognize one another’s engineering degree programs. At present, India is a member of the Washington Accord on a provisional basis. One of the key factors for a country to be eligible to be a member of the Accord is that the engineering degrees of that country need to be accredited. As per the decision taken during the earlier IIT Council meeting, the annual performance reviews of directors on the basis of IIT’s mission and vision were also discussed. Till date, review details of directors of IIT-Roorkee, IIT-Patna and IIT-Guwahati have been submitted. The chairman of the board of governors of individual IITs need to conduct the review. During the last IIT Council meeting, discussions were held regarding an external peer review which should be conducted once in 5 years by a committee consisting of 5 highly-placed officials from industry and the academic world. The possibility of a yearly in-house review of departments was discussed as well. As per the latest meeting, the internal departmental review is expected to be concluded by December, 2013. The names of members belonging to the 10-member committee of highly-placed officials from industry and the academic world for peer review is expected to be sent to the HRD Ministry within October, 2013. Discussions were also held regarding measures to boost the number of Doctors of Philosophy (PhDs) from the IITs. The chairman of the National Coordination Board (NCB) for Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) has been requested to grant permission to third year students pursuing Bachelor of Technology (B Tech) courses under Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs) with Cumulative Performance Index (CPI) of 7.00 to appear in GATE. Other recommendations to enhance the number of PhDs included providing an option to students post the first year of a 2-year Masters of Technology (M Tech) program to change to a dual degree of PhD and M Tech. Students will be entitled to PhD fellowship for 4 years. Another option discussed is to enroll top B Tech students from other institutions in the country for PhD programs into the IITs, at the conclusion of their third year. The students need to rank among the best 10% in their institute at the conclusion of the third year. Moreover, another recommendation states initiating PhD options for employees from the industry, who are required to complete the course work by using National Knowledge Network. Regarding financial autonomy, a decision was taken that the IITs need to raise 30% of their non-plan expenses which will be supported by a similar grant from the government.
Posted on: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 08:30:14 +0000