| MUMBAI: From the next academic session, technical institutions in the country will be regularized by the universities they are affiliated to.
After the Supreme Court ruling said that colleges affiliated to any university do not come under the purview of the 'technical institutions' as defined by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Act, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has prepared a draft of guidelines for approval of new courses, setting up of new technical institutions and closure of the old ones and all other regulatory steps.
The draft guidelines under the UGC (approval of colleges offering technical education by universities) regulation, 2013 define every aspect of running a technical institution. The guidelines issued on December 3 lay down regulation for deciding the intake capacity of colleges, setting up of a new institution, adding integrated programmemes, dual programmemes etc. A technical institute will now need permission from the affiliating university and not the AICTE as per the new draft guidelines.
The UGC states that no college will be allowed to offer any programmeme without the approval of the university they are affiliated to. Also, universities are expected to maintain a list of unapproved colleges with them and also inform the UGC and general public from time to time as it was done by the AICTE. Violation of any regulations laid down by the UGC will attract penal civil action including withdrawal of approval. Colleges will not be allowed to start again before completion of two years from the date of withdrawal.
Moreover, the university can not allow fresh admissions to colleges for one year among other penalties if they find any college taking admissions over the sanctioned intake capacity. The same penalty would also be applicable if the colleges do not have a qualified principal/director. Colleges which do not manage to maintain the faculty-teacher ratio also will be liable for action by the affiliating university.
The UGC regulation lays down guidelines for all technical institutions offering courses in engineering and technology, management, pharmacy, architecture, hotel management and catering technology. In short, most of the regularization, which was earlier done by the AICTE will now come under the purview of the university and the UGC. The UGC has sought suggestions on the guidelines from universities/colleges as well as all the stakeholders.
An official from the directorate of technical education ( DTE) said that the guidelines need to be studied. "There may not be any significant changes. Confusion might arise now due to the limited control given to the AICTE. We are still not sure if the diploma courses which are regularized by us will remain under our purview or not. These polytechnic institutions are in no way connected to the university, and therefore cannot be regularized by them," said the official.
S S Mantha, the chairman of AICTE said that he was not involved in the process of drafting the guidelines. "AICTE is a regulatory body for technical institutions, set up by an Act of Parliament. We are seeking the restoration of the council as it was from the Centre," he said. |