Self-regulation mooted for technical institutions

Thiruvananthapuram: The All-India Council for Technical Education is planning a shift from institutional regulation to self-regulation for technical education institutions by asking the institutions to declare in a public domain the courses they offered.

This is  following the Supreme Court order in April debarring the AICTE from regulating technical educational institutions. As per the Supreme Court verdict, it is for the University Grants Commission to act as the regulatory body. The role of the AICTE would be as  an advisory body.

AICTE director M. Abdul Rahman told Deccan Chronicle that the AICTE could not make any direct regulations on the institutions unless  Parliament brought in legislation  giving it powers for the same.

Sources said that as a result, it is for the universities to decide on intake and continuation of the affiliation on the basis of the infrastructure as per the academic and infrastructure norms formulated by the UGC.

The power of the AICTE will be restricted to revalidating the infrastructure once in three years, sources said. The court had also made it clear that only the UGC was empowered to regulate higher education institutions and not the AICTE.

With the verdict making the AICTE almost defunct, there is need for a legal framework  for setting standards for infrastructure, curricula  and quality, and also supervise  technical education institutions. The AICTE, set up in 1945 as an advisory body, was given statutory status in 1987 by an Act of Parliament.