BHUBANESWAR: Amid controversy over requirement of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) permission for offering professional courses in general institutions, the Higher Education department has made it mandatory for all colleges and universities under it to get the council’s nod from 2024-25 academic session.
The department has stated that degree colleges, both general and self-financing, and public universities planning to offer Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) and Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) courses including online and distance learning mode must secure approval from AICTE from the ensuing academic session. Institutions that plan to offer such courses in self-financing or public-private partnership (PPP) modes are also required to get the council’s nod.
The department has also directed higher education institutes which are already authorised to offer MBA, MCA, IMBA, IMCA, BBA, BMS and BCA programmes to obtain AICTE approvals and submit them to UGC to continue with their entitlement for such courses in the new session. Besides, the public universities have been asked to conduct a thorough check regarding the AICTE approval before giving affiliations to any institution for the above-mentioned courses.
In December last year, the department had identified eight autonomous government colleges of the state offering technical and professional courses without the approval of AICTE. The colleges are BJB college, Shailabala Women’s college, FM college, Government college at Angul, Bhadrak college, Dhenkanal college, Maharaja Purna Chandra college and Samanta Chandra Sekhar college at Puri.
Operating professional programmes without the necessary approval is a violation of AICTE regulations and a breach of the trust placed in educational institutions to maintain standards, states the University Grants Commission.