Chennai

They are not affiliated to any State-run universities and are not empowered to provide degrees. Instead, they offer various open and distance learning and post graduate (PG) diploma and certificate courses.

The AICTE has decided to grade these institutions into category-I, II and III based on various parameters. In its latest guidelines, the council said standalone institutions falling in the top two categories would be allowed to take decisions regarding the introduction of new courses, intake capacity, grants and others.

The category I institutions would include those that have been running three or more courses with a minimum 75 per cent score from the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). They would be exempted from annual monitoring of learning resource centres, unless when there is substantive evidence of them not meeting the basic minimum criteria, or of irregularities or malpractices.

These institutions would be allowed take their own decision on recruiting teachers and admitting students. They can also open research parks, incubation centres and institute-society linkage centres in self-financing mode, either on their own or in partnership.

The category II colleges include institutions running three or more courses with NBA score of 67.5 per cent or above. They would not have the liberty to run more than the total number of NBA-accredited courses they are already offering.

The rest of the standalone institutions that fail to meet the prerequisites for categories I and II would stay in category III.

The council would periodically review the functioning of standalone institutions that have been granted autonomy at least once in five years, the guideline said.

Visit news.dtnext.in to explore our interactive epaper!

Download the DT Next app for more exciting features!

Click here for iOS

Click here for Android