Govt-appointed panel for single engg, mgmt tests for

A government-appointed panel has recommended a single entrance test for admissions to all engineering institutes under AICTE and a common examination for all business schools.
Significantly, it has suggested that seats which fall vacant after the completion of counselling sessions "shall not be treated as a management quota", but be used to accommodate students on the waiting list.
The panel has recommended setting up of a National Testing Service for conduct of the exam and proposed that it be an independent body seeking the support of CBSE or outsourcing the work to other agencies.
At present over 11,000 institutes, both engineering and management, come under the purview of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

"There shall be a single National Testing Service which shall conduct a Joint Entrance Examination for engineering courses and a Common Admission Test for management courses, the results whereof shall be used by all institutions, whether run by universities, deemed universities, state government-run universities, private universities etc.
"The seats which fall vacant after the completion of counselling sessions shall not be treated as a management quota, but shall be used to accommodate students on the waiting lists of these examinations," the report of the AICTE review committee said.

The recommendations have been posted on the website mygov.In to seek the views of stakeholders.

"Today a student takes a plethora of entrance tests for entry to an institution under AICTE - and these are over and above the board exam. For example, JEE Main for engineering, CMAT for management, etc. Moreover, most states have some form of an entrance test. Besides, several deemed universities and private universities have their own tests and criteria for admission.
"Therefore, it is proposed that a national testing agency be established under AICTE. It will endeavour to have a single national entrance test for all institutions under it," the report said.
In its report, the committee has also suggested that AICTE should be transformed into an "apex constitutional authority" and emphasised on doing away with the affiliation system within a decade.

"It should be converted into an apex constitutional authority to promote orderly, integrated and coordinated development of technical education...Technical education should be a fundamental right," the report said.
The recommendations come two years after the HRD Ministry then headed by Kapil Sibal had proposed to have a similar national testing agency to conduct various kinds of national level entrance examinations. A task force was also constituted to take the proposal forward, but little was heard about the it since then.
Recognising the need for restructuring and strengthening the AICTE to address the challenges, the Human Resource Development Ministry had set up a review committee led by former education secretary M K Kaw in November 2014.