New Delhi, Sept. 6: The National Board of Accreditation, the agency to assure the quality of technical education in the country, has been separated from its parent body, the All India Council of Technical Education, in a step to make it more independent.

The NBA has been registered as a society and now has its own general council and executive council to decide on accreditation and quality control of institutions teaching engineering, management and architecture.

Set up under the AICTE Act in September 1994, it at present assesses and accredits the courses offered by nearly 8,000 technical institutions in the country.

“The NBA is a society and has been separated from the AICTE. Earlier, it had board members who were deciding accreditation related matters. The minutes of the board were also going to the AICTE council meeting. Now the NBA is independent and can take decisions without depending on AICTE,” acting AICTE chairman Prof. S.S. Mantha told The Telegraph.

The step was taken to meet the requirements of the Washington Accord, an international agreement for recognising engineering degrees of signatory countries. The accreditation agencies of at least 14 countries, including the US, Britain, Australia and Canada, are signatories. India has applied for permanent membership of the accord to help engineering graduates from the country to move easily to any of the other member countries for work or higher education.

India is a provisional member of the Washington Accord. The AICTE, which has applied for permanent membership for the NBA in the accord, hopes for a favourable decision by early next year.

“The member countries of the accord held a meeting in Canada in July. They are in favour of India’s permanent membership. They have asked for some more documents with regard to the status of the NBA, which is the accreditation body. As per the accord, the accreditation body should be separated from the agency giving approval to engineering institutions. Accordingly, the NBA has been made a society. We have supplied all the information and we expect full membership by early next year,” Mantha said.

After being made a society recently, the NBA notified its new rules, according to which the general council will be the highest authority to decide on accreditation. The AICTE chairman will remain president of the general council which shall have 20 members, including four vice-chancellors and six principals.

The NBA will have its own executive council of at least 20 members to deal with administration and implementation of its guidelines.

The NBA will periodically assess institutions and award grades. It will also ensure that the accredited institutions follow the AICTE curriculum.