Tech institutes should get full approval, says AICTE

Following complaints, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has issued strict instruction that all technical institutions should get full approval from the Council before conducting courses.

The council’s directive came against the backdrop of complaints that some institutions were conducting all courses though they obtained only partial approval for some of the programmes.

In a circular to all vice-chancellors of the central, State and private universities, AICTE member-secretary Rajive Kumar noted that the institutions have the obligation or duty to conform to the standards and norms laid down by AICTE for the purpose of ensuring coordinated and integrated development of technical education and maintenance of standards.

He said AICTE conduct inspections of universities to ensure that they are functioning as per the provision under relevant rules and regulations of the Council.

“Further, all affiliated institutions running technical programmes require prior approval of AICTE. However, it has been observed that some of the central, State and private universities are taking partial approval of AICTE for some selected technical courses and programmes, which was creating confusion among the stakeholders,” he said.

Therefore, he said, the Council has decided that no partial approval of technical courses would be given to universities in order to avoid confusion among the stakeholders. Accordingly, all universities were informed they have to obtain full approval of all technical courses, he added.