Not a regulator, AICTE should have 'mentorship role': Panel

AICTE, which governs technical education in the country, should have more of a mentorship role in the sector than that of a regulator, suggested a panel set up to look into its restructuring.
In its voluminous report presented to the HRD Ministry recently, a four-member review committee under former education secretary MK Kaw felt that over-regulation of technical education along side under governance at the same time was one of the ills plaguing the sector.
Without going into details, ministry officials said the committee has suggested suitable amendments to the AICTE Act to help it evolve into a body matching present-day requirements.

The report is currently under examination, they added.
The report comes a month after another panel, set up to review the functioning of UGC, which governs higher education in the country, made far-reaching recommendations, including for replacing UGC with a new statutory agency.
The government is yet to form a view on the recommendations of that committee.

The AICTE review committee was set up amidst a growing realisation that the body was finding it difficult to match up to the demands of the private players in the field of technical education.
One of the mandates of the committee was to enable AICTE to address the challenges in the wake of growing complexities and the expansion in the technical education sector.

In its report, the committee has recommended a series of measures to bring in an effective accreditation system in the technical education sector.