What is the NBA and Why Does It Matter?

NBA stands for the National Board of Accreditation which is an accreditation agency representing India in the Washington Accord (WA). The Washington Accord is an agreement between bodies that accredit or recognize higher level engineering qualifications.

NBA is one such autonomous accrediting body in India, which deals with the accreditation of engineering and various technical institutions on the basis of the quality of education provided there. The guidelines outlined by the NBA act as parameters to accredit institutions.

As with any organization, the NBA also has some objectives. The generalized and broad objectives of the NBA are as follows-

• Regular evaluation of institutions or programs providing technical training on the basis of norms, standards and guidelines.
• Development of quality conscious systems which are relevant to the latest market needs, excellent and includes participation by all the stakeholders.
• Building an education system that matches the aim of growth through competence and contributes to the national economy through societal development.
• Providing quality benchmarks targeted at the national and global level human capital in every technical education field.

An institution has to undergo certain procedures to get accredited and fulfill some conditions laid out by the NBA. After a visit by authorities from the NBA based on their assessment, the institution may get accredited.

The Accreditation Process is Outlined Below

First & foremost step for a HEI to proceed for NBA accreditation, is to get registered by filing a form & paying registration fees. They need to submit their institution’s basic details with a registered email Id on the eNBA portal. A permanent user Id along with password credentials is generated on paying the nominal registration fees (nearly 10% of the total registration fees). Utilizing the permanent Id, institutions need to submit more details such as name of head of the institution, information regarding the key promoters, institution’s bank details, proposed programs along with soft copies of all AICTE Approval Letters (year-wise letters of past 5 years) or any suitable regulatory authority. Once it’s done, the institution is required to prepare a self-assessment report (SAR). This can be done by self-evaluation of internal work processes & activities. This step serves as a chance for the institute to apply corrective measures and improves the way it functions.

HEIs need to submit them online along with paying the remaining 90% of the registration fees & the procedure is termed as ‘e-SAR’ submission. On successful submission & acceptance of the e-SAR, the NBA members invite qualified institutions to suggest & decide final dates for their personal visit to their campus. On the predefined day, the evaluators visit the campus and assess every key detail as per the SAR. Furthermore, they make observations and analysis based on their guidelines. This is one of the most important phases of the accreditation process. The reports must be accurate in terms of data & include the information covering the following areas in a higher education institution.

• Mission, vision and Program Educational Objectives (PEO)
• Curriculum of Program
• Program Outcomes (PO)
• Performance of Student
• Contribution of Faculty
• Technical Support and facilities
• Continuous development
• Academics of First Year
• Student Support Systems
• Financial Resources, Institutional Support and Governance

NBA accreditation will depend on how well the institution has performed in terms of education outcomes, faculty performance, and overall facilities being provided to enhance students’ growth. Even though the main objective of the NBA is to ensure quality standards in many aspects, the impact of accreditation goes far beyond this. The key impacts of NBA accreditation are-

• Urges the institutions to initiate quality improvement programs, activities, etc.
• Enhances student enrollment quality-wise and quantity-wise
• Promotes the financial health of the institution and hence students get benefit in multiple ways
• Largely improves the employability of the graduate students
• Facilitates mobility of professionals and students as well as transnational recognition of degrees
• Keeps the faculty motivated to participate actively in academic activities
• Promotes a competitive academic environment where students grow and foster socio-economic development at the national level by producing best quality technical manpower.

It is because of such reasons that the NBA matters so much. Especially in a developing economy like India, where quality technical manpower is required on a large scale. Also, the students get the flexibility of choosing any workplace or country since many global opportunities open up for them if they graduate from an NBA accredited college.

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