 "Govt meeting today on AICTE role")
The human resource development ministry has called a meeting on Friday to discuss ways to restore the powers of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
About 300 business schools are waiting for a decision, ahead of the Common Admission Test results next week.
A senior ministry official said: “There is an internal meeting to decide on giving further power to AICTE. The UGC (University Grants Commission) cannot regulate the institutions and with the matter being a serious one, the ministry wants to decide on the amendment to the AICTE Act soon.” The ministry would seek the opinion of various parties, including AICTE and UGC.
According to senior officials, the ministry was looking at an interim arrangement, so that AICTE could set standards for technical institutes and higher education. The ministry had explored options, including the introduction of an ordinance, to restore the powers of the regulator but failed.
“We are hoping that the HRD ministry takes a decision tomorrow. We are waiting and watching,” said Chowdhari Prasad, chairman-admissions at T A Pai Institute of Management.
Management institutes in the country have also expressed unhappiness at the revised UGC guidelines, which bade autonomous management institutes to seek fresh approvals from local universities.
Earlier, Union Minister for HRD Pallam Raju told Business Standard his ministry was looking to bring an Act to restore the relevance of AICTE. “We are working on it and hope to get it approved soon. We had planned an ordinance but we do not think we will go ahead with that,” Raju had said.
AICTE had filed a review petition against the order, saying the authority had played the role of a regulator for many years and it couldn’t suddenly become wrong. “We do not want to damage students’ future. There could be a tremendous amount of exploitation and unstructured growth. We do not want that to happen,” AICTE Chairman Shankar S Mantha had said. The petition is still pending.
About 300 business schools are waiting for a decision, ahead of the Common Admission Test results next week.
A senior ministry official said: “There is an internal meeting to decide on giving further power to AICTE. The UGC (University Grants Commission) cannot regulate the institutions and with the matter being a serious one, the ministry wants to decide on the amendment to the AICTE Act soon.” The ministry would seek the opinion of various parties, including AICTE and UGC.
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The Supreme Court had, in a ruling last year, quashed the powers of the technical education regulator, saying the council was not empowered to lay down rules for technical courses. This had made the AICTE only an advisor in the technical education space. Then, UGC had issued a circular in December, bringing all technical and professional schools under its ambit.
According to senior officials, the ministry was looking at an interim arrangement, so that AICTE could set standards for technical institutes and higher education. The ministry had explored options, including the introduction of an ordinance, to restore the powers of the regulator but failed.
“We are hoping that the HRD ministry takes a decision tomorrow. We are waiting and watching,” said Chowdhari Prasad, chairman-admissions at T A Pai Institute of Management.
Management institutes in the country have also expressed unhappiness at the revised UGC guidelines, which bade autonomous management institutes to seek fresh approvals from local universities.
Earlier, Union Minister for HRD Pallam Raju told Business Standard his ministry was looking to bring an Act to restore the relevance of AICTE. “We are working on it and hope to get it approved soon. We had planned an ordinance but we do not think we will go ahead with that,” Raju had said.
AICTE had filed a review petition against the order, saying the authority had played the role of a regulator for many years and it couldn’t suddenly become wrong. “We do not want to damage students’ future. There could be a tremendous amount of exploitation and unstructured growth. We do not want that to happen,” AICTE Chairman Shankar S Mantha had said. The petition is still pending.