AICTE rejects 66% applications to set up colleges in western region

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has rejected two-thirds of applications to set up new colleges in the western region in the first three months of this calendar year. The region comprises Maharashtra and Goa and the Union Territory of Daman and Diu.

AICTE, the apex technical education regulator, had received 459 applications from colleges and institutions there between January and March. Of these, it accepted only 157. More than half of these applications had sought permission to set up management institutes. The remaining were for engineering institutions, integrated colleges and pharmacy colleges.

Most applications were rejected since they did not meet the stipulated requirements. However, some were rejected because of errors due to unfamiliarity with the online process, introduced for the first time this year. Some had sent more than one application and all these were registered; in addition, some had sent incomplete applications.

Last year, in the corresponding quarter, the western region had received 235 applications. The rejection rate, according to a source familiar with the development, was as high as this year. AICTE got 2,176 applications from all over the country for the comparative January-March period, from various states and individuals, to open technical institutes. The total of applications in calendar year 2009 was 12,100.

First online process
Members of the western region council of AICTE, which includes six vice-chancellors of universities and technical institutions, had met recently to clear the applications. This was the first regional meeting of AICTE members since the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) launched the AICTE website, wherein processing of all applications was made online from January 2010. The MHRD has put in place a comprehensive revamp of the technical education regulator.

“The new process put in place is useful, as it weeds out the non-serious players in education. However, the process could have been made more useful by introducing active evaluation (meaning, field visits) of the applications,” a member of the committee told Business Standard on condition of anonymity. Institutions whose applications had been rejected, he said, had the option to appeal and get the applications reviewed by the apex body at AICTE.

At present, there are 2,872 technical institutions across the country, with a student intake capacity of 10,71,896.

According to a recent report titled ‘Envisaging Future of Indian Higher Education’, prepared by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), the number of privately managed colleges are expected to double, from 300 at present to 600, by 2012.

The report predicts that the number of engineering colleges in the private and joint venture sectors are likely to be 2,000 in the next two years, against the present 1,200, and the number of medical colleges will reach 200 against the present 150.

The report estimates the total market size for all private engineering and medical colleges at $1,360 million (Rs 6,392 crore), with the two components of roughly equal value.