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17 nations to accept Indian engg degrees
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 13
Indian students with accredited technical education degrees will now find it easy to get academic recognition and jobs in 17 major nations across the world, including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey and Russia.

After years of struggle, India today gained the status of permanent signatory to the Washington Accord (WA), a global agreement that covers mutual recognition in respect of tertiary-level engineering qualifications among the signatory countries.

The Accord, which dates back to 1989, recognises substantial equivalence in the accreditation of qualifications in professional engineering, normally of four years duration. Simply, it promotes mobility and quality assurance of engineers across international boundaries.

The WA charter requires that nations set up suitable accreditation standards, which would ensure a minimum quality of attainment for their engineering graduates. On India’s behalf, the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) signed the agreement today after the meeting of the International Engineering Alliance of the WA member countries was held in Wellington, New Zealand.

The development follows rigorous review of India’s accreditation standards by the WA secretariat which sent a team in December 2013, and then in January this year to carry out comprehensive audit of the NBA accreditation systems and practices. Earlier in 2005, India’s bid for permanent signatory status to the WA had been rejected.

The move will encourage technical institutions to seek NBA accreditation for their courses and enable their students to get global equivalence. Last year, only 10 per cent technical and engineering courses in the country were accredited. In 2013, the government made accreditation of technical courses mandatory.

HRD Minister Smriti Irani today said the move would ensure highest standards in India’s technical and engineering programmes and provide global mobility to engineering graduates, something that was not available before.

“Graduates having accredited degrees would have substantial international equivalence of their achievements across the signatory nations. This will substantially enhance their employment opportunities around the world,” she said.