Do we need the AICTE at all?

AICTE is a sanctioning and monitoring agency for technical education in India. This article argues that AICTE should instead play the role of anaccreditation agency that would allow for natural improvement in the system.

AICTE, All India Council for Technical Education, was set up way back in 1945 to monitor all aspects of technical education in India. It oversees quality, administration, intake, eligibility, and many such academic issues for technical and professional colleges. Necessary as these may seem at first in its manifesto, on second thought, one can't help questioning the need for their authoritative implementation as practised by the AICTE.

Technical education has always had to face the complex need of keeping with the fast- growing laboratory knowledge on one hand, and industrial practice on the other, much more so in this era where computing seems to be setting the pace of our lives. It is hardly surprising then that in keeping with such needs, attempts are made to create new academic courses in existing or in new institutions to meet these challenges. How appropriate such courses are, how well they can be delivered, and so on, are all issues that concern students who wish to enter them. 

To be honest, at the end of the day, an institution and its students both share the risks and rewards from such academic ventures. Farcical it is, that the AICTE should step in here between an institution and its students, to sanction or monitor running of new institutions and courses.

A year ago, AICTE was caught on the wrong foot for fraudulent practices in sanctioning new institutions and courses. While action has been taken since, by way of making their application process online, the very idea of having a sanctioning authority here is non causa pro causa. In its present form, that is. Rather than be the legislative body it now is, one would expect the AICTE to be no more than an official accreditation agency that awards rankings or ratings to courses in academic institutions. 

That accreditation itself must be transparent, supported by online evaluation by students, placements, industry feedback and the like. Such a system will be self- improving, because no institution would survive for long with poor ratings. Eventually every such institution's quality should be comparable with that of premier institutions worldwide.

Would someone in the HRD ministry take note?