Leave us alone, B-schools tell AICTE

Over 20 premier Indian B-schools have jointly decided to present a white paper to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), recommending that instead of regulating them, the governing body should facilitate the growth of management education in India.

The white paper, to be brought out by management schools like the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, TA Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Manipal, Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon, Great Lakes Management Institute, Chennai and Xavier's Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar, will contain suggestions ranging from allowing the B-schools to scale up their student capacity; kind of courses that should be allowed to be taught in these institutes and speeding up any kind of approval process these institutes seek from AICTE.

The paper will be presented to the AICTE chairman in the next two months. It will also seek views from the industry on if it has a problem accepting students who are not from an AICTE-approved institution.

"There is a huge demand of quality MBAs. Therefore, quality institutions in the country should be allowed to scale up. All these institutes have the capacity to increase their seats but due to AICTE's regulations they either cannot do it or have to seek its permission which takes a long time," says professor Sunil Rai, joint director, SPJIMR.

When an institute plans to increase the seats, it has to initiate the process a year in advance. With the AICTE taking time to grant permission to the institutes, there is a lot of uncertainty in the air.

Says Rai: "We had applied to AICTE last year seeking permission to increase capacity for our management programme. But the clearance has come now when the exams are over, we will have to see how we can accomodate students now."

S P Jain which wants to increase seats for its two-year management programme, has got permission to do so recently. It will now admit 180 students to the programme instead of 120 seats earlier.

The B-schools have decided to suggest that the AICTE should distinguish between the credible management institutes and the not-so-credible institutes.

Based on this segregation, AICTE can provide autonomy to the credible institutes and support to the not-so-credible ones to improve their standards and be recognised by the industry. The white paper will also cover industry needs and requirements and inform the AICTE on the programmes that the industry needs.

It will suggest to the AICTE to do a survey of the institutions whose programmes are not acceptable by the industry. These institutes can be then provided support and brought up to a level where the industry takes note of them.

"A large number of programmes should be allowed to run as the industry is accepting it. The facilitator should see the programmes which are recognised by the industry and let the market forces decide on it," says Rai.