A National Board of Accreditation team would visit National Institute of Technology, Patna, next week to assess the academic and infrastructure facilities at the state's oldest engineering college.

The board is to technical institutions what the National Assessment and Accreditation Council is to universities and colleges. Its objective is to ensure quality and relevance of education in professional and technical disciplines.

NIT, earlier known as Bihar College of Engineering, is the oldest institution of its kind in the state and this would be the first time the National Board of Accreditation would visit it. The team would arrive for a three-day visit on September 18 following the NIT's request for an assessment by the National Board of Accreditation on different parameters. The institution is not yet accredited by the board established by the All India Council of Technical Education in 1994 for periodic evaluation of technical institutions and programmes according to the specified norms and standards recommended by the council.

Senior NIT electronics faculty member G.K. Chaudhary said: "This is the first time the National Board of Accreditation would visit the institution. It would assess the academic and infrastructure facilities at the institution."

After assessing the infrastructure and academic facilities, the team would prepare its report. The team would judge the student-teacher ratio, placement of students, research activities carried by students and faculty members, exposure of students, lab facilities on the campus, classrooms and other parameters on the visit. It would also assess five undergraduate courses run by institution - civil, mechanical, electrical, electronics and communication and Information technology.

Usually, institutions performing well on the different parameters receive an accreditation for five years while those with satisfactory performance are accredited for two or three years.

Chaudhary said: "Though ranking and accreditation of National Board of Accreditation have no direct influence on the functioning of the institution, getting good marks and longer period of accreditation would help establish the institute's reputation."

Sources said if an engineering cradle gets a good rank from the board, institutions such as Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP), a World Bank body, shows interest in giving financial assistance to the school. NIT-Patna already runs various programmes assisted under the TEQIP scheme.