Global recognition of Indian degrees now; India gets full-fledged membership of Washington Accord

Ahmedabad, 13 June, 2014

India has become a full-fledged member of the Washington Accord to help improve mobility of engineering graduates of the country by getting their degrees professionally recognised on a wider global platform.

Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani shared this detail today morning during her visit to Gandhinagar in Gujarat. She said Indian students, especially the engineering students will be benefited through this accord. Employability of Indian engineers in other countries will go up substantially. This will also help Indian students pursuing technical education.

The accord, signed among six countries in 1989, is an international agreement among bodies responsible for accrediting engineering degree programmes.

The signatories as of 2013 were Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, China, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, UK and USA.

India was a provisional member of Washington Accord since 2007. Since then, there had been field visits by mentors to help India prepare for the permanent membership. The mentors had observed the engineering education and advised the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) about the changes that would help bring the Indian system in line with the expectations of the signatories of the Washington Accord.

The Indian Institutes of Technology had in September decided to be part of the accreditation system in the wider interest of promoting quality assurance of engineering education in India, and helping it earn a permanent signatory status in the accord.