Technical & Management Colleges seek clarity from HRD Ministry on accreditation status

While 2013 saw a lot of management institutes face inconvenience for uncertainty in the institute status. Earlier, most of these colleges functioned under the domain of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), but were later directed to report to their respective universities.

The change was implemented after the Supreme Court ruled that colleges affiliated to any type of university will not automatically come under the umbrella of technical institutions as defined by the AICTE. The UGC then drew up a list of guidelines for all procedures which were previously under the control of AICTE like approval for new courses, or setting up new colleges or shutting down old colleges etc. all under the direction of the AICTE. This list was issued in December 2013 and included all technical institutes offering courses in engineering and technology, management, pharmacy, architecture, hotel management and catering technology.

So now what has changed?

According to the new norms set up by the UGC, all technical institutes will need a go-ahead from the university it is affiliated to for any new thing – be it starting a new course or college or changing syllabus etc.

What does this mean for institutes?

With this implementation, no college will be able to offer new courses to its students. With 2014 CAT results scheduled to be out on January 14, 2014, management colleges feel that implementation of these new guidelines is going to be a very difficult task. Why? Too short a time. Till then, most of the B-Schools in India want to request the ministry to allow them to use the approvals awarded to last year.

Besides this, the colleges maintain that without any clear cut regulatory process in place, the inherent problem will not be resolved as there is no clarity on how the government proceedings work. In retrospect, some of the management colleges feel this move is detrimental to the autonomous functioning of colleges as now, they will have to go to back to taking multiple permissions from various bodies to run their colleges.

Tell us what you think about this ruling by the Supreme Court!