All India Council for Technical Education

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), is the statutory body established for proper planning and co-ordinated development of the technical education system in India. It was established in November, 1945. Currently, there are 1,346 engineering colleges in India approved by the All India Council of Technical Education with a seat capacity of 4,40,000.

All the major Engineering, Pharmacy and MBA colleges are affiliated with AICTE. The prominent exceptions are B. Tech. courses from Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), ICFAI and BITS, Pilani.

The AICTE has its Headquarters in Indira Gandhi Sports Complex, Indraprastha Estate, New Delhi, which has the offices of the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and the Member Secretary.

Objectives

The AICTE Act of 1987

AICTE is vested with statutory authority for planning, formulation and maintenance of norms and standards, quality assurance through school accreditation, funding in priority areas, monitoring and evaluation, maintaining parity of certification and awards and ensuring coordinated and integrated development and management of technical education in the country as part of the AICTE Act No. 52 of 1987.

The AICTE Act, stated verbatim reads::"To provide for establishment of an All India council for Technical Education with a view to the proper planning and co-ordinated development of the technical education system throughout the country, the promotion of qualitative improvement of such education in relation to planned quantitative growth and the regulation and proper maintenance of norms and standards in the technical education system and for matters connected therewith."

Current Objective

In order to improve upon the present technical education system, the current objectives is to modify the engineering curriculum as follows:

#Greater emphasis on design oriented teaching, teaching of design methodologies, problem solving approach.
#Greater exposure to industrial and manufacturing processes.
#Exclusion of outmoded technologies and inclusion of the new appropriate and emerging technologies.
#Greater input of management education and professional communication skills.

AICTE Bureaus

The AICTE comprises nine Bureaus, namely:
* Faculty Development ("FD") Bureau
* Undergraduate Education ("UG") Bureau
* Postgraduate Education and Research ("PGER") Bureau
* Quality Assurance ("QA") Bureau
* Planning and Co-ordination ("PC") Bureau
* Research and Institutional Development ("RID") Bureau
* Administration ("Admin") Bureau
* Finance ("Fin") Bureau
* Academic ("Acad") Bureau

For each Bureau, Adviser is the Bureau Head who is assisted by technical officers and other supporting staff. The multidiscipline technical officer and staff of the Council are on deputation or on contract from various Government Departments, University Grants Commission, academic institutions etc.

Controversies

ISB

Although Indian School of Business has been repeatedly rated as one of the best in the world, it has not been recognized by the AICTE. On paper this is because the flagship courses at the institute run for less than a year's time and do not award any official degrees. However Premchand Palety, director of Centre for Forecasting & Research (C-fore), says that this has been intentional on the part of ISB:

"If ISB is not keen on getting AICTE approval, it has a valid reason. It doesn’t want to lose the flexibility in running its programme." [http://www.livemint.com/2007/08/13011308/Harassment-by-AICTE-the-saga.html Harassment by AICTE: the saga continues]

CFA Institute

In May 2007, upon being approached by ICFAI requested AICTE to investigate the nature of the CFA program run by the CFA Institute of USA: whether it is a "technical education" or not. Shortly thereafter AICTE served notice to the CFA Institute to cease its Indian operations. CFA Institute in turn believes that

"High Court order only states that “it is considered appropriate to direct the respondent authorities to examine the veracity of the allegations brought to the notice of this Court.” Thus, the Gauhati High Court has only directed the AICTE to determine whether CFA Institute must seek approval for our CFA Program from the AICTE. " [http://www.cfainstitute.org/aboutus/press/release/07releases/20070330_01.html CFA Institute Speaks Out Against Efforts To Confuse And Distract The Indian Investment Community - An Open Letter]

Numerous other observers question the validity of AICTE's actions in view of
# ICFAI's stand off with the CFA Institute [http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1099216&pageid=0 How ICFAI managed to block CFA]
# CFA Institute's reputation of being a leading provider of education in the field of financial analysis (it was established in 1947)
# The CFA program not fitting the criteria needed for a foreign institute to require AICTE approval (it does not conduct any classroom programs: it simply provides study materials and conducts examinations)

hri Balwant Institute of Technology

AICTE has been charged with alleged nepotism in the case of Shri Balwant Institute of Technology, Sonepat. Although there were no allegations of any improper conduct, it was noticed that the expansion permissions were granted with swiftness unusual for AICTE while the trustees of the college include Rajesh Yadav, brother-in-law of AICTE’s acting chairman, Ram Avtar Yadav and Sushil Yadav, who is the wife of Rajesh Yadav. [http://in.biz.yahoo.com/080114/259/6pkol.html Institute run by AICTE head’s relatives gets swift approvals]

Dual Salary drawn by Acting Chairman

In late 2007, an anonymous letter addressed to Cabinet Minister for Human Resource Development, Arjun Singh, claimed that the then Vice Chairman Professor Ram Avatar Yadav, was drawing two salaries in parallel: one as pension from Delhi University, and the other from AICTE [http://www.livemint.com/2007/12/16235450/C3910CF0-B9B3-4806-BDD5-A75DF22623F1ArtVPF.pdf Transcript of the Letter - by Livemint.com] [http://www.livemint.com/2007/12/16235450/AICTE-head-faces-salary-questi.html AICTE head faces salary questions] .

In response to investigations by the vigilance cell of the Indian Government's Ministry of HRD, Prof. Yadav returned an unknown fraction of the surplus salary he had withdrawn for 3 years in March 2008. No clarifications could be ascertained from any of the parties involved [http://www.livemint.com/2008/06/01221921/2008/03/28002806/AICTE8217s-Yadav-gives-back.html?d=1 AICTE’s Yadav gives back pension money]

ee also

* Education in India
* DOEACC
* Science and technology in India

External links

* [http://www.aicte.ernet.in/ All India Council for Technical Education] Official
* [http://www.aicte.ernet.in/AccreditedInstitute.htm List of schools accredited] by All India Council for Technical Education

References