Chairman Meets College Heads To Discuss Suggestions For Improvement
All India Council for Technical Education will soon rank technical institutions in the country and involve stakeholders of these institutions in decision-making by seeking their recommendations on key issues.
AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe on Friday met regional AICTE directors of Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Pondicherry and heads and representatives of technical institutions in these states in Chennai. Sahasrabudhe announced that the technical body would start the ranking process in three months.
The AICTE rankings of the institutions will be based on several parameters such as quality of infrastructure, quality of faculty, research and innovation, placements, entrepreneurial activities and collaborations with other institutions. Anna University in Tamil Nadu had introduced a similar ranking system of all its affiliated en gineering colleges, but this is based only on academic results, semester-wise.
This was the first such meeting by the AICTE chairman who will travel to several states over the next 10 days to discuss the future of technical institutions. During these meetings, the AICTE will also seek suggestions on administrative changes including of the approval process for the setting up of new institutions or closure of existing ones.
“The meetings are being held to discuss a holistic development of institutions in the country . We are hoping that these interactions will help both the AICTE and the institution stakeholders to have a mutual understanding about the issues regarding quality and functioning of colleges,“ he said. Some of the issues raised during the meeting in Chennai was teacher-faculty ratio, availability of PhD scholars for teacher posts and autonomy.There will, however, be some demands that the AICTE may find difficult to accept. A se nior academician who participated in the meeting said some college representatives felt that the existing teacher faculty ratio of 1:15 should be revised to 1:20, which may dilute learning quality.
Some institutions also said a PhD qualification for the post of associate professors in institutions should not be mandated as there is a lack of PhD scholars. “We find it hard to fill these positions as we need qualified doctorates for these posts. We hope that these recommendations will help bring about a revision of some policies,“ said an academician. The next meeting will be in Bengaluru, when the AICTE chairman will hear out representatives of Karnataka and Kerala colleges.
