Friday, March 03, 2006

AICTE: Waking up from 61 years of slumber

May a million flowers bloom, said Chairman Mao. And one day, on a whim, he went and razed the garden.

In India, flowers and gardens remain scarce but a million other things bloom. Illegal construction. Unregulated educational institutions. Until one fine day, someone wakes up and commands, "Hatao!"

But this is not China, so people take to the streets in protest. Like the students of Satyabhama engineering college and SRM Institute of Science and Technology - both deemed universities. Hundreds of students of these colleges held demonstrations demanding to know the status and validity of their degrees.

This follows a notice from AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) which apparently states that B.Tech degrees awarded by deemed universities would not be recognised, unless the courses were approved by the council

Students of the Dr MGR Deemed University and Bharat Engineering College had gone on strike for four days on the same issue, a few days ago.

The colleges are battling it out in court, and say that since they have UGC approval they do not come under the purview of AICTE.

What took so long?
The sad part is, in all these ‘technical’ discussions of eligibility and approval, the fate of thousands of students who took admission in good faith hangs in balance.

We do need a regulatory body but clearly, AICTE is like an old and toothless ayah running around and shouting, “Children, don’t be naughty.” What else can one say about a regulatory body which, Kumbhakaran-like, awakes from its stupor once every 5 decades or so?

Did you know that All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) was first set-up in November 1945??!!! Yup, that’s what it says on their website and honestly it was news to me.

AICTE was meant to be: "a national level Apex Advisory Body to conduct survey on the facilities on technical education and to promote development in the country in a coordinated and integrated manner."

But something, somewhere went awry. So…

The Government of India (Ministry of Human Resource Development) constituted a National Working Group to look into the role of AICTE in the context of proliferation of technical institutions, maintenance of standards and other related matters. The Working Group recommended that AICTE be vested with the necessary statutory authority for making it more effective, which would consequently require restructuring and strengthening with necessary infrastructure and operating mechanisms.

Wonderful. Is that why AICTE is suddenly getting so active? Er, not exactly. These recommendations were made in 1987 !! The AICTE Act came into force a year later…

The statutory All India Council for Technical Education was established on May 12, 1988 with a view to proper planning and coordinated development of technical education system throughout the country, the promotion of qualitative improvement of such education in relation to planned quantitative growth and the regulation and proper maintenance of norms and standards in the technical education system and for matters connected therewith.

Phew – quite a mouhful. But no one has a clue where AICTE was in the 1990s when engineering, management and medical colleges were mushrooming all over the country.

Many of these colleges were started by politicians, and flouted every conceivable norm (‘technical institutes’ in sheds with tin roofs for example – that was the state of some colleges in New Bombay when they first came up). Money and muscle power ensured AICTE looked the other way.

Now, the powers that be are keen to rectify the situation. AICTE is publishing notice after notice in newspapers imploring technical institutes to apply for accreditation – and threatening legal action against those who do not comply. But colleges are thinking, we’re all in it together – can they really shut down hundreds of us?

Well, Amity Business School’s flagship PGDM course actually lost its AICTE accreditation in September 2005 after failing to meet prescribed norms. Amity also lost the subsequent case in the Allahabad High Court challenging the AICTE order.

But surely in the course of an entire year it could not have been the only institute found unworthy of accreditation? Why was so much speed shown in revoking Amity’s accreditation while others receive only threats and warnings??

The point being that unless AICTE is perceived as being fair, impartial and speedy in its actions it will never be taken seriously.


Secondly, however badly a college may have sinned revoking accreditation in the middle of an academic year is senseless. All such announcements must be made before the start of a session and must apply to new admissions – not students already enrolled!

The Tamil Nadu tangle
I don’t have an intimate knowledge of the scene in Tamil Nadu but I do know that SRM and Satyabhama were – at least till a couple of years ago – well respected colleges. Students rated them in the top 10 in the state and SRM even produced ‘state rank holders.

Then, they became deemed universities and according to this news report, went in for reckless expansion

The Tamil daily Dinamalar, in its report dated 2 September 2003, has highlighted the massive expansion of capacity by the SRM Engineering College: "on obtaining the deemed university status, SRM Engineering College has admitted 2000 students netting in Rs.300 crore. In the much sought-after ECE course, 600 students had been admitted. A complaint on this had been sent to the chief minister's office, which has initiated an enquiry."

The complaint pointed out that the college, which until last year had a total strength of just 2000, has admitted more than 2000 fresh students this year. Against the optimum strength of around 50 per class, this year it has admitted 80 students in each section for the ECE course collecting Rs.2 lakh per student. It is gathered that the principal has opted to resign unable to cope with this crowd.


Can current students throw some further light on the situation? Are they satisfied with their course?? And if all is above board what is the institute’s problem in applying for AICTE accreditation anyways???

Expansion by itself is not a bad thing - doing so without inadequate teachers, facilities etc is what needs to be checked.

Between the out and out commercialism (of colleges) and the out and out bureacucracy (of AICTE) lies a middle ground which desperately needs to be explored.

10 comments:

  1. As a victim and survivor of the 'Affiliated to...university' and a prospective 'to be deemed' syndrome,I can understand your sentiment.It is not just the recognition part ,but a bigger malaise that is eating the system.Spare a thought for the faculty at such establishments .Most of the lecturers are in the transitional mode between their own graduation and a real job.On an occasion one of my batchmates actually played student to a lecturer who was his junior in school
    A typical visit by the AICTE team would be characterized by sprucing up of the lawns & facilities,Endless plates of Kaju and Badam would be consumed and Cola bottles circulated.ExIIT professors ( alleged visting faculty )would mysteriously appear in full strength and disappear just as suddenly till another team arrives... .
    Every year NASSCOM comes out with figures that the IT sector is falling short of qualified manpower..on the other hand we are churning out Engineers faster than bunny litter...
    The solution is not in the hands of the government ,The corporate sector would have to assume greater role...update the curriculum,engage the faculty and actually authenticate the utility by recruiting from the less fortunate colleges.

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  2. What timing Rashmi. Yesterday I called up the AICTE regional office in Bangalore for finding out whether the BVB Marshall MBA program (http://www.bhavan-marshall.org/) is recognised by them or not. The answer was no.
    Now I am in a fix because my sister has been offered a seat there and I am the one who is supposed to make a decision. The MBA program is not recognised but Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan is a known and reputed institution in itself and Marshall University looks like a safe bet too.
    The worrying factors for me are--
    Will that MBA degree be able to get her a decent job.
    Can AICTE shut down the course half way through.

    Facility wise the institute is OK. No issues there.

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  3. Having studied in Chennai I do about these colleges ( Satyabhama and SRM). True they both wer extremely reputed colleges. But one can't deny that they completely lost it once they became deemed.They have since started charging exorbidant amounts for entry into their holy portals,have an intake of too many students, too high marks are being awarded to all students amongst their other sins.. But yeah.. the students who are currently studying there do not deserve the punishment that they too recieve just through virtue of studying in that institute. Extremely unfair. After paying through your nose and slogging it through all these years having their degrees being made less significant is heartless! Action should be taken only from the batch of 2006 onwards. But it is to a large extent the governemnts fault. The government on granting the universities their deemed status should have informed them of the need to obtain AICTE approval too.

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  4. Am an admit into ISB this year. Is this foreboding something awry about to unfold, given that ISB was asked something by AICTE this year and the fact that they do not have an AICTE accredition as yet?

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  5. This comment is not related to your blog but please do check this link out when you can http://blanknoiseproject.blogspot.com/2006/02/blank-noise-presents_22.html

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  6. Dear Krishnan...ISB is an ideal paradox when we talk of affiliations and stuff...ISB doesnt need AICTE affiliation...because it is beyond it...remeber the Japanese manufacturer who had to put defective items as the client demanded that on his communication
    ISB has pretty high standards as u know and the affiliation would have caused dilution of those..ST/SC quotas..fee & curiculum control.. and stuff..since u are an admit ..im sure u wud recognize that...as i said in my previous comment..industry acceptance is critical n AICTE affiliation is mere symbolic...n even BUSH decided to grace the non affiiated ISB ..shows that it has some real standing

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  7. I hail from South and have a lot of frens working with me , who are from these colleges , they are reputed to have a school like atmosphere !
    But the Q on whether management is rite in admitting more students I think should be viewed in the context that ,the number of Engg seats in the country are limites and ppl who opt for Non-Engg (atleast the wide majority) feel they have lost out and many feel inferior to Engineers though skill-wise it may not be the case.
    Since ultimately these ppl land up in same industry as most of these Engineers ie Software Industry , i feel it is not wrong to increase the seats in a college as long as students are gettin proper facilities. The AICTE 'approved' courses in some new colleges are held in marriage halls and make-shift buildings but they were never Questioned by anyone , so poiting fingers at a few top colleges seem to suggest something else than just the will to 'improve' quality of education in country

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  8. AICTE's policies regarding conformance to their academic policies are fairly rigid. It is an improper move to declare such a notice after everyone has committed themselves to an institute. I don't understand the point in removing institutes which have been successful from their inception. As said in the post, it is the facilities that need to be checked and as long as the standards are complied with AICTE should have no trouble with these insititutes.

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  9. i am a "desperado"............

    reading all these i feel that i should not study further..........i have already been under an open university due to "majboori".......but now got a call from BVB-Marshall MBA programme............knowing the facts i directly talked to a prof there and he said that his engineer daughter is studying there and there should be nothing more to say to it........

    then i talked to a lawyer friend in B'lore and she said that 2 yrs back the placement were in companies like HP; her friend said that his bro or someone known is there too........

    i mean to ask someone of u all........whether this is going to be a good investment......becoz spending 6 lacs with no return to it.........is not what any of us would want.......

    state facts and reasons and help me out ..............if anyone wishes to
    thanks

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  10. people i'm selected in SRMEEE, any advice on whether i shoul go ahead or not?

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