Bhubaneswar, July 16: The Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) has asked all its constituent colleges to prepare themselves to get membership of the National Board of Accreditation (NBA).

The move will bring in more opportunities for engineering graduates of the state and provide them with an improved global mobility.

"Technical education in the country reached a new level in June 2014, when India became a permanent signatory member of the Washington Accord. The Washington Accord will create an equivalence of engineering programmes and allow Indians to get jobs in other member countries," said BPUT vice-chancellor S.S. Patnaik.

Under this context, the varsity is all set to organise an awareness workshop titled Outcome-based Education and Accreditation. Participating representatives from various institutions will be sensitised about the NBA accreditation, the assessment methodology, guidelines, benefits, quality initiatives, Washington Accord membership and its advantages.

"Globally, the trend has changed from mere accumulation of course credits to mastery over the subject and what a student has achieved out of his learning," Patnaik said.

The BPUT has more than 150 constituent colleges. However, very few of them are accredited. The varsity is yet to document about how many colleges are NBA accredited. "Following this awareness programme, we are going to compile the courses and institutions that are already accredited," said Patnaik.

Patnaik said he was hopeful to meet the accreditation goal. "We just have to give the technical colleges the final push to meet the gaps suited for the global standards," Patnaik said.

The varsity will also consider to provide academic autonomy to premier institutions such as the College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar, which already have accreditation and made a mark in the field of quality education.