AICTE

In order to upgrade various technical institutes in North Eastern States, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has announced financial assistance for 2009-10. The announcement followed by around 191 applications during 2009-10 from North East technical institutes seeking financial assistance to upgrade their institutions.

Online approval system, which was introduced by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) from this year, has resulted in delay in the process. The purpose behind introducing the online system was to speed up the process of approval of engineering, pharmacy, MBA and MCA colleges and also to check corruption and the role of middlemen but the system proved unreliable.

To make sure that the courses are on par with international standards, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is revising accreditation criteria for technical education programmes in the country. The acting chairman of AICTE, S S Mantha declared:

On July 8, The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has come up with a huge expansion in technical education for Tamil Nadu. There has been an endorsement of 42 self-financing engineering colleges. With this, Tamil Nadu accounts for a number of 498 engineering colleges, second only to Andhra Pradesh. Presently Andhra Pradesh leads with highest number of engineering colleges with a figure of 500.

 Students Beware! MBA or B Tech degrees from institutes on which you might have spent a few years and a couple of lakhs, may not have any value at all. The latest data available with the All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) shows several institutes offering degrees and diplomas in a range of subjects, have not bothered to obtain the statutory approval from the government to run the courses.

 After six decades of India’s independence, our B-schools follow the United States as a model for business education. This blind aping of the US is, in fact, a bane for our education. This is valid in spite of the fact that our IIMs – Ahmadabad and Calcutta in particular – were assisted by the leading business schools of the United States during their initial days. Our B-schools continue to recommend American books as there is a dearth of good Indian books written by our authors. 

The Ministry of Human Resource Development might be steadily moving towards implementation of important reforms recommended by the committee led by Prof. Yash Pal, but the latter does not seem to be amused by the way the ministry is going about the matter.

Women’s education front must clearly be experiencing a very confusing phase in Mumbai, especially after the numerous women’s colleges and educational institutes in the city have started expressing the desire to go co-ed within a year of being established under a special scheme of 2009.

The National Council of Higher Education and Research (NCHER) Bill, which proposes constitution of an umbrella body for regulation and control over higher education in India, has drawn opposition from various parties and states. Sudarshan Roychowdhury, minister for higher education, West Bengal, has declared that the state government would oppose the Bill in its present form. 

The Ministry of Human Resource and Development has identified 201 private management and technical education institutes in the country running unapproved courses, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal informed Lok Sabha.