 "B-schools to move SC against University Grants Commission")
Over 300 business schools may knock the doors of the Supreme Court for a legal recourse against University Grants Commission’s (UGC) move to take over technical education.
At a meeting on Saturday, 100 B-schools, including SP Jain Institute of Management; MDI, Gurgaon; Fore School of Management; Birla Institute of Management Technology, Noida; XLRI Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur; and International Management Institute, Delhi; decided to approach the apex court. Other B-schools would later join them in the process.
The B-schools said they would try to get a stay order on the UGC move.
The institutes offering post-graduate diploma in management (PGDM), including the IIMs, use the CAT score to grant admissions to over 15,000 students. After the results, these B-schools will have to begin the process of group discussion and personal interviews.
“If this matter is not resolved by January, the admission process will be disturbed. Also, many B-schools don’t know if they can add seats this year, as the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has not opened its portals to begin the approval process after a Supreme Court order in April,” said Harivansh Chaturvedi, director at Birla Institute of Management Technology, Noida, and alternate president of the Education Promotion Society of India (EPSI).
AICTE is the country’s technical education regulator and B-schools need its permission to expand or add seats.
The B-schools said they would write to Human Resource Development Minister M M Pallam Raju next week, asking him to solve the issue. The ministry, say B-schools, could have avoided this situation by bringing in an ordinance or amending the AICTE Act. “But for its unwillingness, we have to go through all this now,” said Chaturvedi, adding the Supreme Court was the only option before B-schools if the ministry did not resolve the matter.
This April, the apex court had allowed private colleges to conduct Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Computer Applications (MCA) programmes without AICTE’s permission. Following the order, UGC takes over technical education, while AICTE is expected to play only an advisory role and prescribe uniform standards of education for affiliated members of a university.
Early this month, UGC, in confirmation with the Supreme Court’s ruling, drafted guidelines for approval of new courses, setting up of new technical institutions and closure of the old ones and all other regulatory steps.
“We may have to approach the court as we do not want to lose our autonomy and go under the university system. Institutions granting PGDM cannot be handed over to UGC,” a director at a Delhi-based Institute said, asking not to be named.
Under management education in India, there are two separate segments — masters and diploma. The masters degree is awarded by universities or institutes affiliated to universities, while a diploma is awarded by AICTE- recognised autonomous and independent institutes.
PGDM institutions do not fall under the state’s purview and need AICTE’s permission to run programmes and expand.
B-schools, said given the state of public universities, which were unable to complete admissions or examinations on time, they did not want themselves to be managed by UGC.
Besides, with UGC in the picture, B-schools say there will be tremendous amount of exploitation and unstructured growth in technical education.
“Public universities are corrupt and inefficient. AICTE has brought in some transparency and reform in technical education through e-governance. We don’t want all that work to go waste,” said the director of a B-school from New Delhi.
On its website, UGC has made public the draft guidelines under the UGC (approval of colleges offering technical education by universities) Regulations, 2013.
The guidelines imply a technical institute would need permission from the affiliating university and not AICTE. It also lays down regulation for intake capacity of colleges, setting up of new institutions, adding integrated programmes, dual programmes, etc.
The UGC regulation lays down guidelines for all technical institutions offering courses in engineering and technology, management, pharmacy, architecture, hotel management and catering technology.
At a meeting on Saturday, 100 B-schools, including SP Jain Institute of Management; MDI, Gurgaon; Fore School of Management; Birla Institute of Management Technology, Noida; XLRI Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur; and International Management Institute, Delhi; decided to approach the apex court. Other B-schools would later join them in the process.
The B-schools said they would try to get a stay order on the UGC move.
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The development is significant as the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) would declare the Common Admission Test (CAT) results on January 14.
The institutes offering post-graduate diploma in management (PGDM), including the IIMs, use the CAT score to grant admissions to over 15,000 students. After the results, these B-schools will have to begin the process of group discussion and personal interviews.
“If this matter is not resolved by January, the admission process will be disturbed. Also, many B-schools don’t know if they can add seats this year, as the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has not opened its portals to begin the approval process after a Supreme Court order in April,” said Harivansh Chaturvedi, director at Birla Institute of Management Technology, Noida, and alternate president of the Education Promotion Society of India (EPSI).
AICTE is the country’s technical education regulator and B-schools need its permission to expand or add seats.
The B-schools said they would write to Human Resource Development Minister M M Pallam Raju next week, asking him to solve the issue. The ministry, say B-schools, could have avoided this situation by bringing in an ordinance or amending the AICTE Act. “But for its unwillingness, we have to go through all this now,” said Chaturvedi, adding the Supreme Court was the only option before B-schools if the ministry did not resolve the matter.
This April, the apex court had allowed private colleges to conduct Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Computer Applications (MCA) programmes without AICTE’s permission. Following the order, UGC takes over technical education, while AICTE is expected to play only an advisory role and prescribe uniform standards of education for affiliated members of a university.
Early this month, UGC, in confirmation with the Supreme Court’s ruling, drafted guidelines for approval of new courses, setting up of new technical institutions and closure of the old ones and all other regulatory steps.
“We may have to approach the court as we do not want to lose our autonomy and go under the university system. Institutions granting PGDM cannot be handed over to UGC,” a director at a Delhi-based Institute said, asking not to be named.
Under management education in India, there are two separate segments — masters and diploma. The masters degree is awarded by universities or institutes affiliated to universities, while a diploma is awarded by AICTE- recognised autonomous and independent institutes.
PGDM institutions do not fall under the state’s purview and need AICTE’s permission to run programmes and expand.
B-schools, said given the state of public universities, which were unable to complete admissions or examinations on time, they did not want themselves to be managed by UGC.
Besides, with UGC in the picture, B-schools say there will be tremendous amount of exploitation and unstructured growth in technical education.
“Public universities are corrupt and inefficient. AICTE has brought in some transparency and reform in technical education through e-governance. We don’t want all that work to go waste,” said the director of a B-school from New Delhi.
On its website, UGC has made public the draft guidelines under the UGC (approval of colleges offering technical education by universities) Regulations, 2013.
The guidelines imply a technical institute would need permission from the affiliating university and not AICTE. It also lays down regulation for intake capacity of colleges, setting up of new institutions, adding integrated programmes, dual programmes, etc.
The UGC regulation lays down guidelines for all technical institutions offering courses in engineering and technology, management, pharmacy, architecture, hotel management and catering technology.