IITs to open themselves for accreditation to Washington Accord

Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are trying to ensure mutual recognition of engineering degrees at the global level by going for self-accreditation.
In this regard, IITs will open themselves to accreditation to get into the Washington Accord, which facilitates recognition of degrees by signatory countries.
However, unlike other institutes where the accreditation is carried out by an external agency, the National Board of Accreditation of IITs will hold their own review, said HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju today.
He said going for an internal review was not a kind of special treatment given to the IITs as suggested. "It is up to NBA to decide whether the review IITs are doing is acceptable or not."

Seeking to defend the move accepted by the IIT council here, he said the internal review of IITs is much more stringent than the accreditation process itself. Besides, members from outside (but from within the IIT family) will be engaged in the accreditation.
According to him, the review will help India meet the requirements of Washington Accord. India is keen to join this group.

Raju said the development would also encourage other institutes including the private ones to emulate IITs feat and raise the quality of teaching.
Significantly, the IITs would also put themselves through an external peer review to be carried every five year. The directors performance would also be evaluated, in a development that promises to add to the overall profile of the IITs in the national and international space.

The directors is expected to the reviewed against the challenges faced by the IITs today such as leveraging on resources, research base, self-sufficiency in finances among others, the minister said.