AICTE to take Action against Unapproved Universities

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has announced that all unapproved institutes in the country, which includes many leading ones, will be closed soon. AICTE had served a notice to as many as 273 unapproved institutes which offer technical courses in March 2007. Only 32 institutes have applied for AICTE’s approval so far and the rest of them stand the chance of being closed down.

The AICTE has plans to approach the state governments to shut the institutes which do not have the necessary approval. Even those institutes having the state government’s approval will have to seek AICTE’s approval. However, some colleges affiliated to state universities could be exempted if they fulfill the necessary formalities asked by AICTE.

Technical education institutes like Indian School of Business, Hyderabad; Kirloskar Institute of Advance Management, Karnataka; Federation of Hotel and Restaurants Association of India Institute of Hospitality Management (FHRAI), Noida; Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai; ICFAI Business School, Gurgaon and Chandigarh; Sikkim Manipal University, Bangalore and TASMAC Institute, Pune still haven’t applied for AICTE approval.

Most of these institutes run courses ranging from masters in management, engineering, hospitality management and diploma in fashion technology.

Institutes which already have got the AICTE approval are the Christ Educational Society, Bangalore; Bharat Institute of Aeronautical Engineering and Technology, Pune; Adroit Engineering Institute, Mumbai; NIIT, Bangalore; Academy of Pharmaceutical Management, Mumbai; Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s PDN College of Communication and Management, Mumbai; Delhi Business School, Delhi; HR College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai and five technical colleges run by Mumbai Education Trust, Mumbai.

Unapproved institutes will be classified in two categories; those which run technical unapproved programmes in collaboration with foreign institutes and others which have not sought the AICTEs approval at all for running their technical programmes.

Mumbai Education Trust’s (MET) five institutes’ MET Asian Management Development Centre; Institute of Distance Learning; Institute of Software Development and Research; Institute of Mass Media and Institute of Medical Sciences’ sought clearance from the AICTE earlier this month. MET league of colleges and the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad have applied for an AICTE approval.