AICTE Amends Rules to Regulate Technical Institutes with Low Admission Rates

From Now, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has the authority to take action against the technical institutes with low admission rates. For this purpose, AICTE has amended its regulations and inserted a new provision to its ‘Grants of Approval for Technical Institution Regulations’. According to the new provision, AICTE can take action against those technical institutes with more than 70% of vacant seats over the past five years. AICTE could ask these colleges to wind up the courses that have fewer students.

An official associated with AICTE revealed that it was mandatory to amend the regulations. If AICTE takes action against technical institutes with low admission rates without amending the regulations, these colleges might challenge the authority of AICTE in Supreme Court or High Courts. Therefore, the council has inserted a new provision by amending the regulations, the official added.

Chairperson of AICTE, Mr. Anil Sahasrabuddhe revealed that a few colleges had sought two years time so that they could improve the admission rates. However, the council is looking into the matter, and the final decision is yet to be taken, he pointed.

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The amended regulations also empower AICTE to take strict action against the technical institutes that do not maintain the prescribed faculty-student ratio, follow government pay scales and violate prescribed qualifications for the appointment of teachers. If the technical institutes violate the above-mentioned norms, AICTE might reduce the intake of students, cancel the recognition of courses or institute altogether.

Apart from the above, AICTE has the authority to suspend approval for supernumerary and NRI seats given to any technical institution for one year.

According to tweaked rules of AICTE, all the AICTE-approved institutes must display or publish the complete list of fees on their official websites. The institutes are not authorised to charge students additional fees other than that published on the website. If the institutes fail to comply with these norms, they will have to pay a fine, i.e., the amount being twice the total fee collected per student.

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Similarly, the name of any AICTE-approved technical institute should not match with the names of country’s premier institutes such as NIT, IIT, IISc, IIM or government bodies such as GoI, MHRD, UGC and AICTE. The council has brought this provision to avoid confusion among the students while taking admissions.