ACCREDITATION OF DEGREE PROGRAMMES IN ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
Prepared by:
Prof. Md. Abul Bashar Director General Directorate of Technical Education Ministry of Education, Bangladesh
INTRODUCTION
The Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh having its membership at WFEO, CEC, FEISCA, FEIIC and having bi-lateral agreement with ASCE, ASME, IEEE, ICE (UK), ICE (Canada), JSCE (Japan), KSE (Korea), IE (Malaysia), IE (India) etc. formed the Board of Accreditation for Engineering & Technical Education (BAETE) in the July, 2000 in order to oversee the growth and quality of Engineering and Technical Education of Bangladesh. The BAETE is to asses and assure the quality of the various constituent elements of the educational institutions of engineering & technology, such as academic ambience, administrative infrastructure, physical resources and avenues for moulding and developing the students’ personality and learning characteristics as per national and international standards and guidelines.
ACCREDITATION
Accreditation does not seek to replace the system of award of degrees and diplomas by Universities and Boards of Technical Education. Accreditation provides quality assurance that the academic aims and objectives of the Institution are known to be honestly pursued and effectively achieved by the resources currently available and that the Institution has demonstrated capabilities to ensure and continue effectiveness of the educational Programme, over the period of Accreditation.
The major policy adopted by the BAETE is to accord Accreditation, not to the Institutions as a whole, but at the Programme level, viz., the four-year undergraduate bachelor's degree programme.
There shall be Sectorial Committees consisting of Chairmen of Board of Studies and experts in respective areas of Concern to assist the Board in its task. The Board shall constitute Sectorial Committees for Programmes of Technical Education in Engineering & Technology. Panels of experts (Visiting Teams) Subject-wise shall be drawn up for undertaking the evaluation programmes.
The Sectorial Committee will consider the report submitted by the visiting Team and verify adherence of the recommendations to the policies and criteria for Accreditation enunciated by the Board and make its own recommendation.
The Board will finally decide on the Accreditation action.
ACTION PLAN
The BAETE will develop the necessary infrastructure for initiating the process of Accreditation by formulating important policy initiatives for undergraduate and post-graduate programmes not only in Engineering and Technology but also in Technical Education (Diploma level).
The Policy guidelines have been translated into a working plan of action by developing a systematic, logical and transparent procedure of Accreditation through a process of discussions, deliberations and national consensus. Various Accreditation parameters have been identified and benchmarks have been established for their levels of acceptance. These have already been widely disseminated during various 'awareness' workshops and seminars conducted all over the country.
The BAETE will provide a set of minimum essential requirements, both in terms of the academic infrastructure as well as physical and other resources essential for starting a new programme. These represent the minimum requirements for approval of new Programmes. It is expected the institutions desiring and deserving 'Accreditation' will substantially exceed these norms. This will ensure the current competence of the Institutions to provide an adequate level of teaching and learning processes as well as a capability to retain this competence in the future. So far undergraduate Engineering programmes of 2 Private Universities are accreditated and another organisation is under the process of evaluation. Besides several technical Institutions covering a wide spectrum have applied to the Board for accreditation.
ACCREDITATION PARAMETERS & CRITERIA
The criteria or standards by which individual Programme in any Institution will be judged, have been carefully formulated so as to give a clear transparent indication of the strengths and weakness of the Programmes. These are classified into indices that measure the quality of different aspects of the Programme: Organisational Infrastructure, Academic Performance and Industry-Interaction Contributions. Under each are included typical criteria for measurement of performance.
Organizational Infrastructure Indices:
Criterion I. Mission, Goals and Organisation
Management: Mission and Goals, Commitment, Attitude, Planning and Monitoring. Incentives, Effectiveness.
Organization and Governance: Leadership, Motivation. Transparency, Decentralization and Delegation, Involvement of Faculty, efficiency.
Criterion II. Financial and Physical Resources and their Utilisation
Capital resources. Operational budget. Maintenance budget. Developmental resources and budget.
Land, Buildings, Hostels, Support services (Water, electricity, communication, etc.) Office Equipment, Canteen, Transport, Medical facilities.
Academic Performance Indices:
Criterion III. Human Resources - Faculty and Staff
Faculty: Numbers, Qualifications, Recruitment Procedures, Workload (Teaching, Research, Consultancy, Administration), Attitudes and Commitment, Faculty Development (QIP, Conferences, Continuing Education, Professional Societies, Industrial Exposure, Sabbatical leave etc.) Performance Appraisal by Students/others.
Admission: Central or Institutional Criteria (minimum criteria for different categories), Admission policy for lateral entry, if any.
Academic Results: Performance in competitive examinations, Admission to postgraduate courses. Employment of graduating: students during the post year. Feedback from employers. Entry behaviour of candidates, Dropouts during the past three years.
Criterion V. Teaching-Learning Processes
Syllabus (contents, frequency of revision), Academic calendar. Registration announcement, Number of instructional days, contact hours per week, Evaluation procedures and involvement of external examiners, system of feedback, laboratories, workshops and Equipment (facilities, maintenance and utilisation), Library, IT facilities, Instructional materials, Budget for consumables, Instructional Programme implementation (lectures, tutorials, assessment and grading of student performance), Maintenance of course files, Workshops, Laboratory Classes, Colloquia, Projects, Teaching aids, Removal of obsolete experiments and introduction of contemporary experiments, System of academic records, Answer books, Project reports.
Criterion VI. Supplementary Process
Extra and co-curriculum activities, Student counseling and guidance, Professional Society activities, Entrepreneurship development, Alumni information, Campus recruitment, Training and Placement activities.
Industry-Institution Indices:
Criterion VII. Industry-Institution Interaction
Industry participation in curriculum planning. Continuing education and industrial internship for faculty, Consultancy, Industry visits and Training, Project work, Extension lectures, Placement.
Criterion VIII. Research and Development
Institutional budget for Research and Development, Academic/Sponsored/Industrial Research and Development, Publication and Patents.
Recognition as Centre of Excellence/Special Assistance/Department Support Programme, Fellowship/Assistantship, Join guidance with industry/R&D Labs/other institutions for Ph.D theses/M.Tech. projects. Criteria for Evaluation of Ph.D Theses/M.Tech. Project.
STRUCTURE OF THE BAETE
The present structure of the Board is as follows:
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Chairman of the Board
1
-
Vice-President (Academic)
The Institution of Engineers (Bangladesh) (Ex-officio)
1
-
Vice-Chancellor, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) or his Nominee at the level of Senior Professor (Ex-officio)
1
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Chairman/Member of University Grants Commission (UGC)
(with background of Science/Technical Education (Ex-officio)
1
-
Vice-Chancellor, Universities of Engineering Technology (UETs) or his nominee (present or past Director of BIT's) (Ex-officio)
1
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Representative of Ministry of Education not below Joint Secretary level. Government of Bangladesh (with background of Science/Technology) (Ex-officio)
1
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Representative from Industry (1), R&D establishments (1)
and eminent educationists (5)
7
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Representative from the Accreditation Board/regional body of Asia & Pacific Countries
1
-
Chairman. Bangladesh Professional Engineers Registration Board (BPERB) (Ex-officio)
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