Ficci for self-regulation of PGDM courses

Fearing that education institutions would be “crippled” due to restrictions imposed by a recent All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) notification for post-graduate diploma in management (PGDM) courses, an industry body today said it would come up with self-regulatory mechanism for such colleges.

“Educational institutions and industry will be crippled due to the restrictions imposed following the notification by AICTE in December,” Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) Director General Rajiv Kumar told reporters here.

He added, “We will prepare a set of self-regulatory guidelines for colleges running PGDM courses.” Kumar said no dateline was set for preparing the guidelines and added that it would be done at the earliest by taking views of all the stake holders. He was speaking after a meeting attended by directors and deans of various colleges and institutions, including industry representatives from leading multinationals to discuss the fallout of the AICTE notification and its impact on colleges that offer PGDM courses.

On December 28, AICTE had issued provisions for regulating the PGDM courses in the country after the regulator received as many as 80,000 complaints on a range of alleged irregularities being committed by some of the institutions. In eight points, the notification called for much greater role of respective state governments in running of B-schools, and many provisions covering almost every aspect of running a management institute. The provisions are also not giving permission to run the globally successful one-year MBA programme in the country.

Expressing fears that “over regulating” would “kill” institutions, Kumar said the notification came when India was emerging as a hub in the area of business education, adding, “this is why FICCI has agreed to work with the institutions concerned and industry to create credibility of self-regulation.”

An education institute member, who did not want to be named, said the entire sector was shocked over the AICTE move “especially since it happened during the tenure of the current HRD minister who is such a pro-active person”. Birla Institute of Management Technology (Bimtech) Director H Chaturvedi said the “draconian” notification would be a setback to institutions and the industry, as the sector, was gearing up for the entry of foreign institutions in the country. Of the 3,800 B-schools registered with AICTE, nearly 500 run PGDM courses.