Higher education courses in India have been accredited with 15 percent from gross as instructed by the National Board Of Accreditation (NBA) although such accreditation offers worldwide recognition through Washington Accord.

NBA chairman Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe said this on Thursday while stressing on the importance of accreditation to higher education courses. Sahasrabudhe was in Mumbai as guest of honour at Mumbai University’s (MU) annual convocation where over two lakh degrees were awarded.

He shared an example of how a set of Indians staying in Kuwait were denied renewal of visa because their higher education courses were not accredited. “NBA has been accorded permanent signatory status of Washington Accord for many years now allowing international recognition to all NBA-accredited programs. Yet only 15 per cent of academic programs have NBA accreditation. It is lesser than the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditations, which evaluates entire academic institutions,” he said, adding how as chairman of the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), he encouraged engineering colleges to opt for program accreditation for international recognition.

Sahasrabudhe also elaborated on his vision for the National Education Technology Forum (NETF), a newly formed national body aimed at providing new age technology-driven educational content. Insisting that it is not a government run ed-tech platform, Sahasrabudhe said, “Children are not interested in textbooks, but they like cartoons. Educational content in cartoons might be more effective. There are already so many organisations which are working in developing technology-based engaging educational content. The NETF will be a single platform where submissions by such organisations will be evaluated, and good content will be recommended to different states.”

The degrees awarded by MU included 1,75,602 graduation degrees and 31,543 postgraduate degrees, apart from 270 PhDs and 23 M.Phil. Out of the total 18 gold medals awarded, 12 went to girls and six to boys.

According to data provided by MU, a total of 79,220 girls and 96,382 boys were awarded graduation degrees. Among those who were awarded postgraduation degrees, 18,551 were girls and 12,992 boys. Considering the faculty-wise statistics, this year’s convocation ceremony included 26,645 degrees for Arts, 4,937 for interdisciplinary courses, and 56, 004 for Science and Technology faculty. The highest 1,19,559 degrees were awarded in Commerce and Management faculty.

MU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Digambar Shirke, Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr Ajay Bhamare, Registrar Dr Sunil Bhirud and Director, Board of Examination and Evaluation, Dr Prasad Karande were present at the event.