New Delhi (PTI): As India aims to become a full-fledged member of the Washington Accord — a grouping of ten countries formed for standardising engineering education — the AICTE has revised the criteria for accreditation of institutes to bring them at par with the international level.

The National Board of Accreditation (NBA) under All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has said that the revised procedure of accreditation will come into effect from January 1, 2009, said a notification issued by the agency on Wednesday.

As per the revised procedure, a visiting team from NBA would check the overall placement success of the institute and satisfaction and comfort level of students.

They will take into consideration the enrolment status, admission norms for the students and if the institute is able to fill up all or nearly all the seats for the programmes which it runs, the notification added.

Facilities for career guidance and arrangement to assist students suffering from psychological disorders are also part of the accreditation procedure.

The team will visit the training and placement facilities of the institute and confirm that there is a full time officer or a faculty who devotes adequate time for overseeing this facility.

The visiting team is expected to review measures taken by the institute for safety of students, teachers and staff. This includes proper storage and handling of hazardous chemicals and maintenance of ventilation and exhausts in large capacity classrooms and labs.

The visiting team from NBA would check the allocation of adequate budget in the institute for developmental activities pertaining to infrastructure and equipment and non-plan such as salary, maintenance and other routine expenditure.

The team will check faculty strength, qualifications of individuals and their competence.

India became a provisional member of Washington Accord in 2007. The elite grouping, that has the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa as its members, works under an agreement called the Washington Accord that is aimed at standardising engineering education internationally.

India is keen to get full-fledged membership of Washington Accord in the next biennial meeting of the International Engineering Alliance (IEA) scheduled in June next year.

The membership will facilitate cross-border mobility of India's engineering graduates. In order to become a member of the club, a country needs to be a provisional member for two years.

The Washington accord recommends that the graduates of accredited programmes in any of the signatory countries be recognised by the other countries as having met the academic requirements for entry into the practice of engineering.