Poor academic records, lack of infrastructure and insufficient faculty have led 588 colleges to lose the approval of AICTE. The All India Council for Technical Education awards approval to technical institutions across the country every year, including engineering, polytechnic, management and pharmacy colleges. The institutions cannot start an academic year without AICTE’s approval.
The states with most colleges being denied approval are Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra with 107 and 88 institutions respectively. Haryana, an upcoming state for engineering education has 32 institutions which were not approved. And Tamil Nadu, the state with maximum number of technical institutions in the country has 31 colleges which were not given the approval.
AICTE has stated problems with infrastructure norms and shortage of faculty as the main reasons for denying approval to these colleges. Though institutions repeatedly apply for increasing intake, they do not have enough number of classrooms and laboratories to support so many students.
However, certain colleges claim that they had asked the AICTE to eliminate certain departments as the demand for the course had reduced considerably.
According to educational consultant J P Gandhi, AICTE looks at institutions’ yearly performances now. Besides infrastructure and shortage of faculty other aspects are also taken into account while deciding a college’s ability. These are performance of the faculty, recruitment of new faculty, research activities and using biometric attendance system for faculty.
In January 2015, the AICTE implemented a regulation stating that colleges can apply for an increase in intake only in courses accredited by NBA. And this current strict verification of documents shows their dedication towards maintaining quality. AICTE’s attempts shall help improve the quality of technical education in the country
[“source-indiatoday.intoday.in”]
