IIT, NIT expert panel to help AICTE assess engineering colleges for seat increase
The move comes after the technical education regulator last month removed the ceiling on increasing intake for well- performing institutions, provided they maintained the highest quality of education.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has engaged over 700 faculty members from the Indian Institutes of Technology and National Institutes of Technology to look into the quality of education of its affiliated technical colleges before allowing an increase in seats, a top official said.
The move comes after the technical education regulator last month removed the ceiling on increasing intake for well- performing institutions, provided they maintained the highest quality of education. Earlier, technical colleges were allowed to have a maximum of 240 seats in any one branch of study.
The council has started the seat approval process for 2024-25, member secretary Rajive Kumar said. It has engaged the faculty from premier institutions to inspect the colleges before granting permission, he added.
“The council has specified some quality parameters for all technical Institutions, including sufficient faculty, fully equipped laboratories and updated infrastructure,” Kumar said. “Whenever new or existing institutions apply for an increase in the number of seats, we will send experts to inspect their premises. The experts will submit their recommendations on the basis of which AICTE will decide whether to allow them to increase the seats or not.”
“It is important to ensure the institutions do not compromise on the quality of education,” he added. “Deputing experts from top institutions for quality checks will help ensure this.”
The experts will be paid for their services and the council will arrange for their travel and accommodation, he said. “In case the number of inspections are more, we will engage more experts from government affiliated colleges, but primarily we would take services of senior faculty members from IITs and NITs,” he added.
AICTE last year also lifted a moratorium on establishing new engineering colleges, three years after it had stopped giving approval to any new technical school since seats were lying vacant across several of its affiliated institutes.
