International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Applied Science (IJSEAS) - Volume-1, Issue-6, September 2015

ISSN: 2395-3470
www.ijseas.com

Accreditation of UG Engineering Programmes in India:

Enhanced Role of Teaching Fraternity
Suresh D. Mane1
1

Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Shaikh College of Engg. & Technology, Belagavi 591556, Karnataka, India

associated benefits (1). Accreditation is the formal

recognition of the quality of an educational program /
Institution by an external - independent agency on
the basis of impartial assessment on the basis of well
defined criteria (2). NBA was constituted in 1994
under AICTE Act (All India Council for Technical
Education) to provide for accreditation of technical
educational institutions and has become an
autonomous body since January 2010 and looks into
quality assurance of technical programmes. NBA was
a provisional member of Washington Accord (WA)
since 2007 and became a full signatory in 2014 (3).
The WA was signed in 1989 and it is an international
agreement among bodies responsible for accrediting
undergraduate engineering degree programs and over
20 leading nations in the world are signatory to the
same as on January 2015. WA recognizes the
substantial equivalence of programs accredited by
those bodies and recommends that graduates of
programs accredited by any of the signatory bodies
be recognized by the other bodies as having met the
academic requirements for entry to the practice of
engineering. OBE is a novel way to improve the
delivery of engineering education as it has a
paradigm shift from the classical teaching focus to
the focus on student outcome. OBE is a wholesome
concept which focuses on the 12 attributes the
graduate engineer needs to possess after
matriculation from the programme (4).
Engineering education is challenging for students as
well as teachers for a number of reasons (5). For
students, the reasons being new university
environment, new engineering curriculum, teaching
and learning styles and socio-cultural influences. For
teachers, the reasons may include having to teach
students with diverse socio-cultural background and
weak analytical ability, changing technological
curriculum and its relevance to industry, and
financial constraints. The faculty needs to understand
the following various criterias for effective course
delivery (6). Continually attempts to improve the
course delivery by updating the content and/or

Abstract
The Indian engineering education has grown leaps
and bounds in the recent years. National Board of
Accreditation was constituted in 1994 under AICTE
to look into the quality assurance aspect of
engineering education. Since 2012, NBA has
constantly updated its SAR and come out with three
different Self assessment reports to evaluate the
technical institutions under tier II category with the
total marks being unchanged at 1000. In 2012 NBA
had 10 different criterias, thereafter in 2013 January
NBA revised its criterias to 9, and once again in
June 2015 NBA has come out with final SAR having
10 different criterias for accreditation of tier II
institutions. It is observed that NBA has consistently
increased the marks under criteria number 5 faculty
contributions from 150 in 2012 to 175 in 2013 and
now recently to 200 marks which now constitutes
20% of the total marks and is the largest criteria. This
study looks into the facets of criteria number 5 as
they have developed over the years and a
comparative table has been created. Deliberations
were undertaken with faculties from various NBA
accredited engineering institutions as well as
institutions strongly aspiring for the coveted
certification. Due to frequent changes in the criterias
the teaching faculty are not clear about the criterias
and their role in changing scenario. The various
measures the teaching faculties need to keep in mind
for ensuring greater contribution and better score in
accreditation process has been enumerated enlisted to
enlighten the teaching fraternity.
Keywords: OBE, NBA, Faculty Information and
Contribution, UG Engineering Programmes
1. Introduction
Outcome based education (OBE) is catching up in
India in the recent decade and due to increased access
to information, more and more institutions are
aspiring to get their programmes accredited by
National board of Accreditation (NBA) for the

139

International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Applied Science (IJSEAS) - Volume-1, Issue-6, September 2015
ISSN: 2395-3470
www.ijseas.com

making use of new instructional materials and

methods (including ICT) (7). To assist the
accreditation process the PO have been broken into
set of outcome elements (8). Technical education
today needs total revamping and changes needs to be
introduced in the various sub components of the
system (9, 10). Empirical studies show that there is
greater need for student engagement to make
engineering education meaningful (11). India has
3400 engineering colleges with a capacity to
accommodate 15 lakh students (12). Hence its
imperative that the institutions and faculty gear up to
implement OBE for a better tomorrow.
NBA basically accredits technical programmes in
India where as National Accreditation and
Assessment Council (NAAC) accredits institutions.
Programme refers to a course such as Bachelor in
Mechanical Engineering (B.E. Mech.) or Masters in
Energy Systems Engineering (M.Tech. Energy
Engineering). NBA has two tier programme for
accreditation: Tier I for Institutes such as IIT, NIT,
Central/State/Private/Deemed to be Universities and
autonomous colleges. Tier II institutions are colleges
under government/government aided/private self
financing which are controlled and affiliated to
universities. The accredited tier I programmes are
now globally recognised as equivalent to the ones
offered by nations like US, UK etc which are
signatory to the WA. Accreditation has evolved over
time from prescriptive to input output model and now
to outcome based model. Earlier prescriptive model
was minimalistic in nature that provided prescription
for minimal case and specifies general parameters
like student faculty ratio, courses, internship,
checklists (13). Present outcome based assessment
based accreditation believes in continuous
improvement and on having direct measures in terms
of PO. It checks the students knowledge, skills and
behavior, teaching effectiveness, research impact on
outcome attainment. Rubrics are also used for
assessment under OBA. Rubrics are assessment
devices to analyse soft outcomes (perceptual data)
which cannot be interpreted by hard data. PO such as
engineer and society, communication need rubrics for
assessment. Rubrics are of two types holistic and
analytical. Teacher starts with holistic model and
refines it to get meaningful analytical model. Rubrics
contains 3 components i.e. dimension (performance
criteria), scale for level of performance and
descriptors.

2. Designing for NBA accreditation

The institution needs to first come out with a vision
for itself and accordingly have various missions to
achieve the mission. Vision is a futuristic statement
(dream) that the institution would like to achieve
over a period of time and mission (few statements)
are the means by which the institution proposes to
move towards and achieve the stated vision.
Considering the view points of all the stakeholders
viz. the faculty, students, employers, alumni, parents,
management the programme educational objectives
are formed which act as a guideline for the particular
(PEO) programme. These PEO are few in number
say 4 to 6 which broadly describe what knowledge,
skills and behaviour the graduate engineer needs to
attain after few (3-5) years of graduation. The PEO
should be in line with the mission and thus the vision
of the institution. After the PEO are formulated the
programme outcomes (PO) are described. PO are 12
in number and represent the graduate attributes as
described under WA. For each subject we need to
define unit wise/chapter wise objectives and them
correlate them to arrive at objectives for the subject
known as course outcomes. The course refers to
subjects studied in each semester and hence the
course outcomes (CO) need to be defined for each
and every subject. CO indicates the learning
outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills and
behaviour after each semester. After the top down
approach of defining and designing the outcomes is
over mapping is to be undertaken. Mapping is the
process of representing, preferably in matrix form,
the correlation among the parameters. Mapping
shows what desired outcomes are already taught, and
at what level, reveals gaps, reveals potential for
cross-course collaboration. Mapping makes course,
program level outcomes clearer to the students and
shows where interventions may be required. Mapping
is undertaken to correlate the Mission with PEO, PO
to the PEO and the CO to the PO. How the course
outcomes contribute to the attainment of the
programme outcomes, how the PO lead to fulfilment
of PEO needs to be explained by use of tables and
charts. The correlation can be low/medium, high or
not applicable (ranked 1, 2, 3 or -respectively) as
the case may be. In the new 2015 SAR 12 POs are
already defined and the CO does not map the entire
PO. Hence augmentation process needs to be
undertaken to ensure that the entire 12 PO are
140

International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Applied Science (IJSEAS) - Volume-1, Issue-6, September 2015
ISSN: 2395-3470
www.ijseas.com

mapped and thus the PO viz. lifelong learning,

professional ethics, engineer and society can be
fulfilled. The vision, mission and PEO should be
given wide coverage and brought to the notice of all
stakeholders. In 2015 SAR programme specific
outcomes (PSO) have been included which are
specific to the programme and institutions need to
come out with couple of PSO. The attainment of CO,
PO, PSO and PEO needs to be demonstrated by the
students in the three consecutive preceding years and
supporting records need to be maintained by one and
all concerned for all the 10 criterias and the 50 odd
subcriterias documents need to be designed, created,
implemented and maintained.

semester exams need to be maintained for evaluating

the achievement of CO. It is recommended that the
unsolved questions from standard text books be
given as assignments to students.
2.2 Need for Standardised Syllabus and Text
books / Reference books
Various universities are having common programmes
with large variations in subjects and credits. AICTE
needs to come out with basic set of subjects and the
concerned laboratories for these programmes. It is
observed that many an accredited autonomous
institutions have undertaken major overhaul of the
subjects to favour the students to achieve higher and
better success rates.
Lesson plans for theory subjects and lab plans as per
time table need to be prepared by individual faculty
to ensure adequate time for course delivery and its
successful completion. Faculty needs to go through
the standard text books and reference books to
prepare hand written notes to ensure the subject is
understood by the students. Fortunately today lots of
books are available on the engineering topics both in
printed form as well as E copies. It is seen from my
personal teaching experience that most of the
engineering text books by native authors do not dwell
much on real world application or examples when
compared to the foreign authors. Indian authors give
very brief introduction about the topic and mostly
focus on the numerical part solving various sorts of
questions. Some authors have gone to the extent of
writing the text books as per the syllabus prescribed
by the university to ensure that it is helpful to the
student fraternity. This situation is not helpful in
advancement of knowledge as students end up
cramming the formulae just before the examinations
without understanding their role or significance.
Different authors use different notations and hence
for want of standardisation of notations the students
and even the faculty at times get confused about the
problems.

2.1 Role of Teaching Fraternity

Teaching faculty in engineering institutions
undertake numerous tasks related to the programme
such as preparation of lesson plan, assignments,
PPTs, lecture notes, lab plans, internal assessment
question papers etc. Apart from preparation they
need to have effective and efficient delivery of the
content to the students on a day to day basis in class
rooms as well as laboratories. Then comes the
assessment of the students learning by way of tests
both internal and external, assignments or by verbal
questioning, quiz programmes etc.
Every semester academic calendar is prepared by the
educational institutions as per the university
notification regarding commencement and conclusion
of semester. The teaching faculty prepares the
academic time table for all the classes as per the
academic calendar. Moreover co- curricular activities
such as industrial visits, conferences, workshops,
faculty development programmes also need to be
taken care of while preparing the time table.
Extracurricular activities such as sports competitions,
annual day celebration, welcome to freshers,
farewell to final year students needs to be planned in
the time table. Days of national importance such as
Independence day, Republic day, Engineers day,
Teachers day, and Graduation day also need to cited
in the academic calendar.
Teachers need to prepare own notes annually and
keep updating the same referring standard text books.
The quality of question papers for internal evaluation
needs to be standardised to meet the CO and also the
scheme of evaluation need to be maintained for all
internal assessment tests. The necessary records of
results in both internal assessment as well as end of
141

International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Applied Science (IJSEAS) - Volume-1, Issue-6, September 2015
ISSN: 2395-3470
www.ijseas.com

for Applied Thermodynamics (ATD) subject being

taught in Mechanical Engineering IV Semester under
Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) which
has IC engines chapter, there is no corresponding
laboratory in IV semester. This puts extra burden on
the faculty to simplify the topic to enable the students
to understand. Table 1 below gives the marks allotted
to faculty contributions by NBA in their SAR
documents in the past three revisions.

Table 1: Marks awarded to various criteria under SAR

TOTAL
POINTS

150

NBA 2013 January

Manual
Criterion
Student
Teacher
Ratio
Faculty
Cadre Ratio
Faculty
Qualification
Faculty
Retention
Faculty
Research
Publication
Faculty
Intellectual
Property
Rights
Funded R&D
projects and
Consultancy
Work
Faculty
Interaction
with outside
world

Ma
rk
20

20
30
15

NBA- SAR 2015

June ( Tier II)
Criterion

Mark

Student
Teacher Ratio

20

Faculty Cadre
Proportion
Faculty
Qualification
Faculty
Retention

25

Research and
Development

30

It is strongly felt that the books should be correlated

to standard handbooks like ASME, ASHRAE,
ASTM and the notations standardised by all the
authors. Even universities can promote publication of
standard text books based on the handbooks to ensure
quality of teaching material is made available

25
25

20

10

10

The pie diagram of absolute marks for the various

sub criterias under criteria no 5 faculty information
and contribution is as shown in figure 1.

Academic
Research 10
Sponsored
Research 05
Development
activities 10
Consultancy
from Industry
05

15
Faculty
Competencie
s relating to
programme
Specific
Criteria
15
Faculty
FDP/
Training

in

MEASURES INTRODUCED
IN JUNE 2015

INTRODUCED
MEASURES
JANUARY 2013

IN

NBA March 2012

Manual for
Accreditation
Criterion
Ma
rk
Student
20
Teacher
Ratio
Faculty
20
Cadre Ratio
Faculty
30
Qualification
Faculty
20
Retention
Faculty
20
Research
Publication
Faculty
10
Intellectual
Property
Rights
Funded
20
R&D
projects and
Consultancy
Work
Faculty
10
Interaction
with outside
world

TOTAL
POINTS

175

Faculty
as
participants in
FDP/
Training
Innovation by
the faculty in
teaching and
learning
Faculty
performance
appraisal and
development
system
Visiting/Adju
nct/ Emeritus
faculty
TOTAL
POINTS

15

Figure 1. Marks awarded to various sub criteria under final

SAR as on June 2015

20

.
30

Following inferences can be made from the table

number 1 and figure no 1.
The marks allotted to faculty contribution under
criteria number 5 has consistently increased from 150
to 175 and now 200 out of the total marks which
remains fixed at 1000 clearly showing the growing
importance of faculty contributions.
There is gradual increase in the sub criterias since
2012. It was 8 in 2012 and increased to 10 in 2013
and 9 in 2015 SAR.

10

200

Many a times due to want of slot the theory and

allied laboratory are not included in the same
semester and as such the learning is not up to the
mark for want of coordination. To cite an example
142

International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Applied Science (IJSEAS) - Volume-1, Issue-6, September 2015
ISSN: 2395-3470
www.ijseas.com

Faculty as a resource person/ participant in

FDP/training has been included in 2013 with 15
marks weightage.
Faculty competencies correlating to programme
specific criteria have been introduced in 2013 with
weightage of 15 marks.
During 2015 criteria 5.7 Research and Development
includes Research Publications, Ph. D guidance,
Sponsored Research, Consultation from Industry as
well as the Development activities. Academic
research gets 10 marks, Sponsored research gets 5
marks, Developmental activities get 10 marks and
Industrial consultancy gets 5 marks
To encourage Innovation by the faculty in teaching
and learning 20 marks have been allotted. This shall
result in faculty developing expertise for effective
implementation of curricula. Effective, efficient and
engaging instruction shall result in contributing to
students learning. The innovations need to be
recorded, made available on college website.
Faculty performance appraisal and development
system with 30 marks has been introduced as an
effective performance appraisal is vital for optimising
the contribution of individual faculty to institutional
performance.
Visiting/Adjunct/ Emeritus faculty with 10 marks has
been introduced to include industry experts, retired
professors. These long interactions shall throw light
on the real world and be effective for students
learning.

2.3.1. Student Centric activities

Undertake research guidance for doctoral students
Prepare students for competitive exams like GATE,
CAT, GRE, IELTS, NET, TOEFL etc.
Guide the students to undertake the manufacturing of
the project in the college premises making use of the
available assets duly procuring the needed
consumables and other components from outside.
Form professional bodies such as IE India, ASME,
ASHRAE, ISHRAE, SAE, and ISTE students forums
and encourage student participate in professional
societies activities.
Encourage and guide students to participate in paper
presentations, technical competitions in other
technical institutions. Maintain documents for
assignments, IA tests, mid and end semester
examinations results, evaluate the same to obtain
academic performance index and student success
rates.
2.3.2 Industry Centric Activities
Develop liaison with industries for inviting industry
experts as guest lectures
Interact with industry and offer consultancy to
improve
safety/productivity,
reduce
energy
consumption,
Interact with institutes of national importance,
research organisation and industry to obtain research
projects
Liaison with central and State PSUs, industries
Large/medium/Small scale for in plant training of
students.
Look out for project opportunities for final year
students which can be collaborative projects with the
local industries.

NBA during June 2015 has come out with SAR

format for Tier II UG engineering programmes which
is more wholesome and comprehensive in nature.
The teaching leaning process under section 2.2 gets
100 marks which focuses on process to improve
quality of teaching, quality of project reports, quality
of internal semester question papers, assignments and
evaluation. There is focus on industry interaction to
improve the quality of teaching learning and some
universities have included internship / summer
training in their curriculum.

2.3.3 Other activities

Maintain record of innovations and use of
Information & Communication Technologies (ICT)
adopted such as PPTs, Animated Video Clips,
NPTEL videos, E Notes, Working models
procurement, Wall Charts, Collaborative teaching,
Visit to relevant labs, Visit to relevant industries,
Mini projects by students
Maintain proper records of students performance on
regular basis to track their performance for effective
mentoring and evaluation of attainment of POs.

2.3 Road Map ahead for faculty

The road map can be segregated into three main
categories viz. Student Centric activities, Industry
related activities and other activities. In addition to
the regular duties the faculty needs to undertake the
following activities.

143

International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Applied Science (IJSEAS) - Volume-1, Issue-6, September 2015
ISSN: 2395-3470
www.ijseas.com

A daily work diary and academic diary covering all

the activities can be developed to capture the works
undertaken.
Get acquainted with feedback systems such as course
feedback, graduate exit feedback, alumni feedback,
industrial feedback to evaluate attainment of POs,
PEOs and GAs.
Maintain records of contributions to institution which
shall help in his own performance appraisal
Develop contacts with retired professors to involve
them as adjunct faculty/ Professor Emeritus for
difficult subjects
Undertake research and publish the findings
Keep track of the latest developments in his/her field
of interest by attending conferences/ workshops/
FDP. Join professional bodies such as IE India,
ASME, ASHRAE, ISHRAE, SAE, ISTE, Tribology
Society of India, and Indian Society for Heat and
Mass Transfer and actively participate in their
activities.
Be in touch with the new developments in
mechanical design and analysis softwares and
arrange for invited talks, workshops on these topics.
Undertake funded STTP, self financing STTP, and
FDP on recent developments in their areas of interest.
Signing MoU with Deshpande Foundation Hubli for
leadership development programme for students as
well as to develop Entrepreneurship qualities among
the students should be enhanced.
Conduct annual alumni meet as well as parents
teachers meet every semester.
Look out for opportunities for funded research from
central agencies such as UGC, AICTE, DST, DRDO,
and from state agencies viz. KSCST, VGST, NAIN.
Foreign institutions too are supporting R&D projects
and can be approached for funding.

Conclusions
At the outset NBA needs to be complimented for
having brought out the accreditation manual and
efforts to come out with excellent and meticulously
documented SAR. These criterias do provide the
necessary direction to institutions and the
stakeholders to proceed in right path to ensure that
the graduate attributes are imbibed in the fresh
graduating engineers.
Interactions revealed that the faculties are finding it
difficult to understand the various terminologies and
issues such as mapping and rubrics adopted for
proper documentation. This paper is an attempt to
compile the teachers contribution to ensure better
contributions to the institution to facilitate NBA
accreditation.

Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the faculty members
of RVCE Bangalore, BVB CET Hubli, HIT
Nidasoshi, BEC Bagalkot all in the state of
Karnataka and Dr. J.J. Magdum CoE Jaysingpur
Maharashtra for their valuable time and inputs.

References
[1] NBA March 2012 Manual for Accreditation of
UG engineering programs
[2] OBE PPT by Dr. D.K. Paliwal, Dr. A.
Koteshwara Rao, Dr. S. Bhaskar, Dr. A. Abudahir
and Dr. S. Rajakarunakaran
[3] NBA June 2015 Self Assessment Report (SAR)
Format for UG engineering programs
[4] Accreditation and Quality Assurance: PPT by
Surendra Prasad Chairman NBA
[5] M.A. Satter and J. Pumwa , Some Problems
And Measures for Improving Mechanical
Engineering Education at the PNG University of
Technology, Proceedings of the 2002 American
Society for Engineering Education Annual
Conference & Exposition
[6] Richard M. Felder et. Al, The Future Of
Engineering Education Vs. Assessing Teaching
Effectiveness and educational scholarship, Chem.
Engr. Education, 34(3), 198207 (2000).
[7] Washington Accord: Overviw pdf accessed on
6.5.15: www.ieagreements.org
[8] Kotturshettar B B, (2015), Defining the
performance indicators: A framework for Program

The course has clearly stated measurable learning

objectives and contributes toward published POs.
The assignments are tied to the CO and are fair,
valid, and reliable and the students achieve the
learning objectives. Develop appropriate expertise in
the course subject and integrate teaching with
research. Communicate high expectations of students
and a belief that they can meet those expectations,
interacts extensively with them inside and outside
class, conveys a strong desire for them to learn and
motivates them to do so. Provide quality education in
the true and broadest sense of the word, not just
knowledge of technical content
144

International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Applied Science (IJSEAS) - Volume-1, Issue-6, September 2015
ISSN: 2395-3470
www.ijseas.com

outcomes Attainment, ICTIEE 2015 proceedings pp

99-102
[9] Tulsi P k, Expectations of Industry from
Technical Graduates: Implications for Curriculum
and Instructional Processes, ICTIEE 2015
proceedings pp 458-463
[10] P Venugopal Reddy, Engineering Education:
Challenges, Threats and Opportunities, ICTIEE
2015 proceedings pp 599-603
[11] Suresh D. Mane, S P Dodamani, Measures to
improve UG engineering education: An empirical
study in the state of Karnataka, The IJES Vol. IV,
Issue IV, April 2015 pp 40-46
[12] World Bank: Report No 57, Engineering
Education in India- April 2013, Executive Summarypp IV
[13] Datta Dandge and Suhasini Desai, Rubrics: An
effective assessment tool for outcome based
accreditation, The Journal of Engineering
Education, Jul 2013 pp 14-21.
Dr. Suresh D. Mane passed out BE in Mechanical
Engineering from Karnatak University Dharwad in
1991. He joined S.C. Railways and served the
organization till September 2012 when he took
voluntary retirement to join academics. He completed
M.Tech in Energy Systems Engineering from BVB
College of Engineering Hubli Karnataka in 2007
duly securing rank to the university. He enrolled for
research in UBDT College of Engineering Davangere
and was conferred with Doctorate by Kuvempu
University Shankarghatta, Karnataka in 2015. He is
on editorial board / reviewer for dozens of open
access peer reviewed international journals and is
Member Institute of Engineers (India) and life
member of Indian Society for Technical Education.
He has published 8 papers in international journals,
one book chapter in Springer and presented papers in
20 conferences/ workshops. His research interests
include thermal engineering subjects, energy
efficiency, energy management and engineering
education. He is also a BEE certified energy manager
and energy auditor (EA -8061).

145