The regulatory body may eventually be superseded by a higher body. In the interim period, govt is introducing a host of measures to ensure transparency and simplicity.
The government is putting in place a system whereby the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)-approved institutions will be given a period of 2-3 years to submit progress reports. Technical institutes, at present, submit annual progress and status reports which they find very tedious.
“Many institutes do not make drastic changes on the campuses every year. So there’s no point asking them to furnish the same reports every year compiling which is a Herculean task,” reasons an official from the ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) who is looking at revamp of AICTE.
This is just one of the many steps the government is introducing to help ACITE clean up its act even as it has set up a task force to study the proposal for a new body — the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) to supercede regulatory bodies like the AICTE and University Grants Commission (UGC). These measures are aimed at revamping and making AICTE more transparent.
MHRD officials, on condition of anonymity, say there will be more policy changes related to AICTE. Some changes might necessitate modification in the AICTE Act also. “We are trying to put everything on the fast track. But till the NCHER takes shape, we will have to deal with AICTE’s troubled past. Improving transparency will be a continuous feature now,” says a top MHRD official.
As part of this process, MHRD on January 7 launched the website of the AICTE, wherein institutes would be required to introduce an online self disclosure regime, greatly reducing any human interface in the approvals process. Processing of all applications for approvals have been made online from January 10. No inspection of existing institutions will take place unless there are complaints against them. New technical institutions, too, will be inspected only once — that is when they apply for recognition.
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Only MBA and MCA courses are to be considered for approval through the distance mode education they have put in place an entire process of revamping the technical education regulator. There are around 2,872 existing institutions with intake capacity of 10,71,896 seats. Moreover, the new system will have several rounds of checks, with the institutions applying for approvals having to file 42 documents. After they have filed the first 20, they would be allowed to go to the next stage of another 20, which would get them a permanent unique identity (UID) number. Students and faculty members, too, would get UID numbers through the portal.
Teachers will mark their attendance through a biometric system. A student’s ID number will help the ministry keep track that institutes do not admit more than their intake capacity. “New systems are being devised so as to reduce human interface and thereby reduce instances of bribery. This is a welcome change by the institutes,” said an official from one of the B-schools which has to furnish reports every year to AICTE.
AICTE is an advisory and statutory body established for proper planning and coordinated development of technical education system throughout the country. However, gross irregularities in its processes surfaced in August, with the arrest of its member secretary, along with a middleman, while accepting a bribe of Rs 5 lakh for granting approval to an engineering college in New Delhi.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also filed cases against five officials, including the chairman and secretary of a Hyderabad-based engineering college. The system, as it existed, enabled middlemen to lobby for college managements whose approvals were rejected by the expert committee appointed by AICTE after inspection. With the help of middlemen, several “rejected” colleges managed to obtain approval by the misuse of power by some officials.
“The authorities which existed have messed up the higher education system. They accepted bribe to the tune of Rs 6-10 crore to upgrade institutes to deemed universities. Nothing can be more appalling,” said a planning commission member. Technical education institutions win deemed university status on the basis of the AICTE’s recommendation, which needs to be accepted by the UGC.