Undergraduate (UG) courses like Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) will be regulated by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) from 2024-25 onwards.
AICTE released its new approval process handbook on December 6, which will remain valid for three years from 2024-25 to 2026-27.
The provision for extension of approval up to 3 years for well-performing Institutions, reduction in compliances related to the requirement of land documents and No Objection Certificate (NOC) from affiliating universities and State, introducing Off-campus provision for well-performing existing institutions within the jurisdiction of affiliating universities are a few other changes AICTE is bringing about in the next year.
T. G. Sitharam, AICTE Chairman said that while AICTE regulates post-graduate (PG) programmes like Master in Business Administration (MBA) and Master in Computer Applications (MCA), it will now also include BBA and BCA under its regulatory umbrella.
“We are introducing a new curriculum vetted by experts across the country for UG courses. Our engineering colleges too can open intake for these UG courses,” Mr. Sitharam added.
Of the 8261 institutes AICTE regulates with a total approved intake of 30.49 lakh students, a majority are engineering institutes (5857) with an approved intake of 24.73 lakh students. Others are Design, Hotel Management and Catering, Management and Computer Applications institutes.
Mr. Sitharam also said that AICTE is easing career advancement for working professionals in the field of technical education by introducing flexible study timings in selected institutes. “A diploma graduate may get a lateral entry in engineering degree in second year but he can take more than three years to complete his degree because he may be working. But under the flexi learning mode s/he will get the same degree as a college going student,” Mr. Sitharam explained.
AICTE has selected over 300 good-ranking institutes across the country for taking 30 seats in diploma, 60 in engineering UG degree and 15 seats in PG degree for registering working professionals to upgrade their education. “We could not find similar institutes in north east, Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladakh so we have relaxed our ranking criteria a little bit in these States and UTs,” Mr. Sitharam added.
AICTE has published academic textbooks including engineering in 13 regional languages including Gujarati, Kannada and Tamil. Mr. Sitharam said that these textbooks have recorded five lakh downloads in the last two years.
In order to widen the scope for admissions under technical education, AICTE has laid out norms for institutes to reserve two super numerary seats for gifted children, who for instance had to drop out to open their own company and so on and could not complete their degree, Mr. Sitharam said
AICTE has also laid out norms for granting autonomy to polytechnic colleges from next year onwards.
Mr. Sitharam also said that industry collaborations for issuing degrees with institutions is being permitted. “This will ease placements as emphasis is on employability,” he added.
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