Quantity is not enough, focus on quality: AICTE

Roughly 20 per cent of all engineering course seats in the country remained vacant last year, while management degree seats were just about ...

Roughly 20 per cent of all engineering course seats in the country remained vacant last year, while management degree seats were just about filled. This justifies the view of the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), mandated to regulate technical education, that the quantity is now just right, and it’s quality that has become the priority in all branches.

The council had yesterday withdrawn recognition to two courses run by Amity Business School, NOIDA.

Nearly 70 more institutions have been warned to improve their functioning, an AICTE official said. ‘‘We have initiated a series of measures to ensure that norms and regulations prescribed for technical-education institutions are strictly adhered to. Earlier, expanding the availability of education was priority. In the past decade, it has quickly grown, and now it’s time for consolidation,’’ Prof R A Yadav, Vice-Chairman, AICTE said.

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An official of the HRD Ministry said improving higher education quality was of prime concern to the government. All institutions running courses in management, architecture, computer applications, pharmacy and hotel management need to adhere to norms prescribed by the AICTE and award degrees under its approval.

There are about 4.5 lakh seats in engineering, 25,000 in pharmacy, 3,600 in hotel management, 4,500 in architecture and 56,000 in MCA courses. Engineering seats on offer in the country far exceeds demand. In Tamil Nadu, 26 per cent seats were vacant last year. In Karnataka, Haryana and AP the figures varied between 16 and 22 per cent. In management, the figures were not readily available but the glut was visible, officials said. There are 1,400 engineering colleges and nearly 900 business schools in the country.

With the focus shifting to quality in the current year, AICTE has approved only 211 of the 767 applications for permission to start new courses. In June 2005, the council issued new guidelines for institutes to make disclosures on several parameters to ‘‘help students make informed decisions’’. Information such as number of teachers and their qualification is now available for public scrutiny.

‘‘The compliance is good. This will ensure transparency in the running of these institutions,’’ said Yadav. ‘‘However, we do not want our regulations to be an obstacle; we only want to be a facilitator. We give sufficient warnings and persuade institutions to improve. Withdrawing recognition is the last resort,’’ Yadav said.