40 colleges face admission ban from AICTE

 The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) conducts surprise inspections annually to ensure quality standards of the country’s technical institutions. In the past months, AICTE has ordered to shut down various engineering colleges and educational shops who do not meet the criteria prescribed by the Council.

The latest being the case of 40 engineering colleges which have been barred from giving admissions to students this year, reported The Times of India. AICTE conducted the surprise inspection in about 5% of the total engineering colleges in India where the council served show-cause notices to 60 colleges in Andhra Pradesh. Out of these, 20 colleges were given conditional permission to admit students and take part in the counseling.   

The charges against the erring colleges were based on deficiencies in terms of infrastructure and staff support while some other colleges are in legal trouble facing charges for hacking into students’ online accounts. An official of the higher education department told TOI that the state government is looking into each of these allegations and only when things clear up a no objection certificate will be given to colleges.

As per the news report, some colleges have appealed to the AICTE to allow them to take part in the counseling. AICTE will review the appeal by the end of this month, informed K V K Rao, secretary, Consortium of Professional College Managements' Association who also feels that AICTE made some judgment errors during the inspection. (Read more)

Another challenge faced by the council is the mushrooming engineering colleges. AICTE received several letters from various states appealing them not to approve the proposals for new engineering institutes. The situation worsens as thousands of seats lie vacant. According to an AICTE record, 14.85 lakhs seats are offered by approximately 3,393 engineering colleges where nearly 2 lakh seats remained vacant last year when the admission closed.  (Read more)

According to an older AICTE survey, 348 institutions providing technical and management courses/programmes did not comply with the AICTE rules and regulations. The council identified hundreds of fake institutes in states like Delhi, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, among others. In the drive to check fake institutes, AICTE and UGC publicise annually through print media/electronic media as well as through their official website, warning students and parents not to take admission in fake and unapproved institutions. (Read full story)

Click here to check the list of institutions conducting technical programmes without AICTE approval.

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