Washington Accord prop for Indian education

28 June, 2007:

The Indian education scene is scaling new highs. The latest on this front is that the country has become a provisional member of the Washington Accord. For starters, the Washington Accord is a 10 member-nation apex global organisation that determines standards of Engineering Education.

So that means a major stride in the engineering education scenario. According to reports, the US-based organization has accepted India as its provisional member for two years after which it will be given the status of a full-time member. India's candidature was proposed by the UK, Australia and Canada and was also by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the reports added.

What does the membership mean? It now ensures that Indian undergraduate engineering degrees would be accorded an equal status in all member countries and they are recognized as engineering degrees of high international standards. It may be noted here that only degrees from the famed IITs and the Birla Institute of technology & Sciences (BITS) Pilani were till now been considered something worthy of a high honour. With the new development, India will see itself doing al it can to improve the quality of its second and third rung engineering colleges.

According to a related report, in the next two years, a delegation from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is expected to sit and work with teams from the member countries to update assessments and quality of faculty and courses in the engineering institutes from the subcontinent to bring them up to the international standards.