India plans to create a separate accreditation body for engineering and business colleges in response to complaints that the current situation, in which the same panel serves as regulator and accreditor, is open to corruption and fails to ensure academic quality, the higher-education secretary told an industry lobbying group last week, according to the business newspaper Mint.

“As far as educational institutions are concerned, we have been saying that accreditation and regulation should be different,” a member of the lobbying group, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, told the newspaper. “Accreditation will then be made mandatory to ensure quality.”

Setting up an independent accrediting group will have to be approved by the Indian parliament. Accreditation is now handled by the All India Council for Technical Education. From 1991 to 2005, the number of private engineering colleges in India rose by about 900, to 1,116, with all of the new institutions approved by the council. Critics have alleged that the regulator accepts payoffs in exchange for approving poorly run colleges.

The industry group said in a report earlier this year that the existing regulatory framework constrains the supply of good institutions, excessively regulates existing institutions in the wrong places, and is not conducive to innovations or creativity in higher and technical education. —Shailaja Neelakantan