COIMBATORE: Putting to rest confusion over who will be granting nod for new and existing engineering colleges, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to commence its approval process for the coming academic year in a few days.
“The court has extended its permission allowing AICTE to grant approval to technical education institutions in the country by one more year. The council will start the approval process for 2015-16 academic year in another 10 days,” AICTE chairman SS Mantha told Express.
Normally, the AICTE commences its approval process in the month of December for the next academic year. Applications were accepted till the end of December and they were processed between January and March to give approval to those who fulfilled the norms. Last year, the Supreme Court first debarred AICTE from regulating technical institutions in the country. This prompted the UGC to take control and issue guidelines apart from banning new institutions and increasing student intake. But, later on, the Supreme Court restored the power to AICTE and the council started approval process for 2014-15 very late on May 10.
AICTE did not start the approval process till date this year, leading to unnecessary confusion among engineering aspirants. “The AICTE has not started the approval process for the 2015-16 academic year and there is no clarity on this,” a principal of a city engineering college had said. TD Eswaramoorthy, joint secretary of the Association of Management of Coimbatore Anna University Affiliated College also confirmed that the approval process is to begin. He said the MHRD has already constituted a committee headed by former secretary MK Kaw to review AICTE functioning.
Meanwhile, the AICTE Member Secretary’s post is lying vacant. The chairman’s post is going to be vacant in January.