AICTE to get retired IIT, NIT professors to mentor colleges

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to invite retired faculty of the country’s leading engineering colleges, such as Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs), to mentor other struggling institutes to improve the overall quality of education.

“These mentors would be in a better position to help institutes in improving the quality of education and student experience, which will automatically make the process of acquiring accreditation easier for technical institutes,” said Anil Sahasrabuddhe, director, AICTE.

In December 2017, AICTE initiated a mission to introduce better systems and processes in order to improve the quality of education imparted in technical institutes across the country, such as imposing a blanket ban on the establishment of new institutes from the 2020-21 academic year.

Last year, AICTE proposed well-performing colleges mentor neighbouring institutes that were struggling to make the cut. “Making such clusters will prove helpful to all as one or more colleges can share resources and expertise and help each other. In case colleges can’t find such mentor colleges, we will request retired faculty to help such institutes with their expertise,” added Sahasrabuddhe.

The council also hoped technical institutes would get at least half of their education programmes accredited by the national board of accreditation to maintain a good standard of education. “Students always seek accredited courses in higher education institutes and are fooled by several smaller and newer institutes. If AICTE makes accreditation compulsory, many students, especially in rural India will benefit,” said the assistant director of an engineering institute in Mumbai.