Accreditation assures that a program has met quality standards set by the profession. To employers, graduate schools, and licensure, certification, and registration boards, graduation from an accredited program signifies adequate preparation for entry into the profession. India has a robust system of accreditation of the professional courses well recognized by the industry within the country even though internationally the country has not yet opened its books for accreditation a handicap that has been preventing the Indian professionals to practice their professions and make careers with ease. This gap is being rectified now with the country moving towards becoming a full signatory of the Washington Accord, an omnibus agreement among participant nations to mutually recons the accredited degrees of the respective member nations.

The Accord originally signed in 1989 has been admitting new members and India became its provisional member in the year 2007 and it has been working towards becoming a full member by fine tuning its accreditation system and also working with international accreditation agencies to start the process of building a mutually compatible accreditation system within the country.

Indian Accreditation: Engineering colleges accreditation benchmarking in India is being done by National Board of Accreditation (NBA) of All India Council of Technical Education. NBA’s detailed accreditation process can be downloaded using this link while the current status of the various institutions accredited by the Board can be seen from this link

Global Accreditation

International accreditation of engineering colleges is done by Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) established as the Engineers Council for Professional Development (ECPD). In India two engineering colleges achieved a break through in getting the prestigeous ABET recognition for some of their specific offerings. First one to get ABET recognition was Vellore Institute of Technology and it got its accreditation for it Civil and Mechanical undergraduate B-Tech programmes SRM University Chennai received its ABET Certification for the Electronics and Communication Engineering B Tech programmes

India joins Washington Accord: India has been included in the Washington Accord covering the Engineering Education as a provisional member, represented by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). The Washington Accord, signed in 1989, is an international agreement among bodies responsible for accrediting engineering degree programs. It recognizes the substantial equivalency of programs accredited by those bodies and recommends that graduates of programs accredited by any of the signatory bodies be recognized by the other bodies as having met the academic requirements for entry to the practice of engineering. Click for detailed press note

The following is the status of Washington Accord.

*Institutions accepted as provisional members are potentially suitable for the purposes of the Accord. Qualifications accredited or recognized by organizations holding such provisional status including that of NBA-AICTE are not recognized by the signatories and as such the courses offered by NBA accredited institutes will not be eligible for full benefits under the Washington Accord which include credit transfers.

Accreditational Agencies in Engineering Education

EA - (Engineers Australia) Engineers Canada - (Engineers Canada) IEET - (Institute of Engineering Education Taiwan) HKIE - (The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers) EngIRE - (Engineers Ireland) JABEE - (Japan Accreditation Board for Engineering Education) ABEEK - (Accreditation Board for Engineering Education of Korea) IPENZ - (Institution of Professional Engineers NZ) IES - (Institution of Engineers Singapore) ECSA - (Engineering Council of South Africa) ECUK - (Engineering Council UK) ABET - (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) Malaysia - (Board of Engineers, Malaysia)

The Other Accords

APEC Engineer Agreement:

This agreement has been evolving since 1999 with the support of the 21 member Asia Pacific Economic Countries (APEC). India is not a member of APEC. The Agreement is largely administered between engineering bodies. The respective governments are closely working with their engineering bodies to make the accord work, even though many glitches remain unresolved. Details

Sydney Accord:

This one is a dynamic one started in 2001 and it recognises substantial equivalence in the accreditation of qualifications in engineering technology, normally of three years duration among its signatory nations. All the member nations joined the accord in 2001.

Dublin Accord:

This agreement is among the four countries including Canada, Ireland, South Africa and United Kingdom for substantial equivalence in the accreditation of tertiary qualifications in technician engineering, normally of two years duration. It commenced in 2002. Two other countries, United States and New Zealand are provisional members of the agreement. Details

Engineers Mobility Forum:

The Institution of Engineers of India is a provisional member of this agreement which commenced in the year 2001. The agreement operates based on the same competence standards of the APEC Engineer Agreement even though the Forum is open for all the nations. The current members are Australia, Canada, Hong Kong China, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom and United States. Including India, the other provisional members are Chinese Taipei and Bangladesh. Details

Engineering Technologist Mobility Forum:

The agreement was signed by participating economies/countries in 2003. The parties to the Agreement have agreed to commence establishing a mutual recognition scheme for engineering technologists. The institutions and individual practitioners would mutual recognition for practicing their profession in the member countries.

The current list of members includes, Canada, Hong Kong China, Ire Land, New Zealand, South Africa and United Kingdom. Details