NBA chairman: Accreditation must for educational institutions

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 21

The Chairman of the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) Prof Surendra Prasad, today addressed an awareness workshop for two technical universities in the state – IK Gujral Punjab Technical University, Kapurthala, and Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University, Bathinda. He said, “A certification by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) is essential for every educational organisation. It helps an institution to realise a number of benefits such as knowing its strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. This is a certificate to performers.”

The topic of the workshop was “Outcome-based education and accreditation”. This workshop was initiated by IK Gujral Punjab Technical University by inviting the NBA. The workshop was for all principals and senior faculty members of IKGPTU Jalandhar and MRSPTU Bathinda. Prof Surendra Prasad, who is also the Professor Emeritus, department of electrical engineering, IIT, Delhi and former director, IIT, Delhi, said by the NBA accreditation, institutions turn towards innovation and become capable to adopt modern methods of pedagogy. Accreditation provides reliable information on quality of education offered to the society; promotes intra and inter-institutional interactions. He said that academic institutions are to produce quality students by providing quality education to them.

Addressing the inaugural session, IKGPTU Dean Planning and Development Dr. Narinder Paul Singh said that to assure quality in technical education and transparency by accreditation, university aims to make it compulsory for all affiliated technical institutions to get accredited. Dr Singh said to achieve the target of 100 per cent accreditation, University’s Board of Governors (BOG) decided to approach national-level accreditation government agencies. Working in collaboration with UGC and AICTE, NBA has provided benchmarks for quality evaluation in teaching. Expert for the day Dr Anil Kumar Nassa, member secretary, NBA referred to participants about the assessment methodology, guidelines, benefits, quality initiatives, Washington Accord Membership and NBA’s future plan.

Another expert speaker for the workshop Prof SC Sahasrabudhe, former Deputy Director, IIT Bombay guided on key components of Outcome Based Education and Accreditation, Vision, Mission, Program Educational Objectives, Graduate Attributes and Program Outcomes. He also touched the topics related to Self Assessment Report (SAR) and also guided to prepare the SAR and effective improvements during the process of Under Graduation level courses accreditation.