New Delhi: Union Minister for HRD Shri Prakash Javadekar Inaugurates 4th World Summit on Accreditation (WOSA-2018) at New Delhi today. Speaking on this occasion the Minister said that ‘Ratings and Rankings’ both the quality hallmark for any educational institutions therefore accreditation becomes very important.
He further said that we need to cover each and every institution under accreditation but right now the number of accredited institutions is very less. He said that that it may be for two reasons first some institutions do not want to come under accreditation and second we have some restriction in our own accreditation mechanism therefore government wants to increase the strength of NBA and NAAC so that more number of institutions can be accredited.
The Minister said that ranking and rating increase competitiveness among institutions for better performance. He gave the example of National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) and said that because of NIRF every institute has constituted an internal committee to improve the ranking. Students also see institutions ranking before taking admission, he added.
The Union Minister said that this government is very passionate about education therefore we havestarted learning outcomes in school education and in higher education students are now empowered with technology. He further said that our government wants to boost quality education in the country therefore every year we are closing some non-performing institutions. Our message to institutions is very clear perform or perish, he added.
While suggesting to NBA regarding boost of quality and accreditation, the Minister said that if we change in norms and regulations in accreditation process we must give adequate time to the institutions for preparation.
The Minister said that we are promoting expansion and autonomy of the institutions and benchmark for the same is quality. He said that we have declared Institutes of Eminencewhich are completely autonomous. Beside this we have given graded autonomy to some higher educational institutions on the basis of NAAC and NBA rating.
Secretary Higher Education Shri R. Subrahmanyam said that the biggest challenge before us isonly 15% institutions come under accreditation and 85% institutions are still not coming for accreditation. We need to review our accreditation system and need to change accordingly.
Dr Anil Sahsrabudhe, chairman AICTE and Dr Surendra Prasad, chairman NBA were also present during the event.
Background
The National Board of Accreditation (NBA) is an autonomous organisation under Ministry of Human Resource Development engaged in quality assurance of the programs offered by the professional and technical institutions in India through accreditation. NBA has been accorded Permanent Signatory Status of Washington Accord since June, 2014. It has adopted internationally implemented outcome based assessment and accreditation, to ensure that the graduates of the NBA accredited programs are globally competent and relevant.
World Summit on Accreditation (WOSA) is a biennial Summit organised by NBA, which provides platform to stakeholders to share their knowledge and information on accreditation. NBA has already organised three Summits in 2012, 2014 and 2016 with the themes “Achieving Excellence through Accreditation”, “International Recognition of Education Qualifications” and “Quality Assurance through Outcome Based Accreditation” respectively. All these Summits were well attended (WOSA 2012 was attended by 800 participants, WOSA 2014 was attended by 850 participants and WOSA 2016 was attended by 800 participants). The deliberations were appreciated by academia, industry and policy – makers.
WOSA 2018
Continuing this tradition, NBA is organising WOSA 2018 from 07th to 09th September, 2018 at Hotel Ashok, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. The focus of WOSA 2018 is on “CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN OUTCOME BASED ACCREDITATION”.
Papers have been invited on the following sub-Themes:-
- Sub-Theme 1 – Achieving Excellence through Learning Outcomes.
- Sub-Theme 2 – Role of Industry in Technical Education.
- Sub-Theme 3– Ranking and Rating of Higher Education Institutions – Do they
havea Role in Quality Improvement?
- Sub-Theme 4 – Linking Government Funding with Quality.
- Sub-Theme 5 – Use of ICT in Accreditation in Large Jurisdictions.
The Summit will facilitate exchange of information on various challenges being faced during the transition between input-output based accreditation to outcome based accreditation. The discussion and global participation in WOSA 2018 will bring about new ideas and help in establishing new trends of identifying opportunities and challenges in professional and technical education world-wide. Many eminent Academicians/Industry Professionals/Policy Makers/Representatives of Washington Accord Signatories/leaders from accrediting agencies from India/abroad will participate and deliver plenary/key note addresses.
Expected Outcomes
WOSA 2018 is an opportunity for academia and the industry to explore avenues for future partnerships and to create an environment for open dialogue to facilitate mobility of students and professionals world-wide to gain international experience. The participants will gain a greater understanding of prevailing global accreditation practices.
The educational institutions will have an opportunity to interact with industry, policy makers and accreditation agencies from the globe and learn about their perspectives. It will also be a unique chance for the educational institutions to develop and fortify ties with the industry.
Industry would be able to interact with educational institutions and accrediting agencies for exchanging views on their requirements of quality manpower and accreditation parameters.
Accreditation agencies from across the world will have a common platform to share best practices, insights and to enhance their understanding of accreditation. The policy makers and regulatory bodies will have an in-depth appreciation of education systems operating in different countries and their strengths and weaknesses.
