AICTE to seek states' help to close institutes

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) "" the body that regulates technical education in India "" has decided to approach state governments and ask them to close unapproved institutions, including several premier B-schools and technical training institutes, operating in their regions.

Around 150 such institutes may face the axe. The AICTE will issue notices to the state governments and to these institutes in a week.

The names of unapproved institutes that the AICTE has put on its website include the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad; the Indian Institute of Planning and Management, Delhi and Mumbai; Federation of Hotel and Restaurants Association of India Institute of Hospitality Management (FHRAI), Noida; Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai; Christ Educational Society, Bangalore; ICFAI Institute of Science and Technology, Bangalore; ICFAI Business School, Gurgaon and Chandigarh and Amity School of Distance Learning, Noida.

These institutes are among a list of 273 unapproved institutes that the AICTE released in March. Notices were sent to them asking them to apply for approval.

"We gave them an opportunity to seek approval. We even sent them requests to apply. In the last week of June, we sent them a final reminder. Since many institutes have failed to comply with our rules, we have decided to take action," said an AICTE official.

He added that many institutes said they did not need AICTE approval. "These are institutes that do not have proper infrastructure in place and fear the AICTE will ask them to close operations," he added.

When contacted, an Indian School of Business official said, "We have not received any communication from the AICTE on any such issue. We have always been transparent in our operations. Whatever information the AICTE wanted, we have provided and if there is any such law we will comply with it."

"The AICTE does not support us in any manner "" financial or academic. We do not need their approval to operate. Our programme is recognised by industry and our students get good placements. Moreover, we do not believe that hospitality management comes under technical education," said the secretary general, FHRAI Institute of Hospitality Management.