JOIN USAICTE to streamline management courses
Acting in the wake of complaints that several institutions did not comply with the specific admission procedure, the apex technical body had decided to streamline the PGDM course, which is not monitored by the universities at present.
“Diploma courses are not monitored by the universities and we only approve the programmes. But we are trying to streamline the courses as students face a lot of hardship,” a highly-placed official told Deccan Herald.
Elaborating on the institutions not complying with the admission procedure, he said some of them even admit students before the CAT/MAT results were out.
“The institutions do not refund admission fees even if the students, who have scored good marks in CAT/MAT, want to switch over and get admission to a better institute or a better programme. In most cases, the amount is quite hefty,” he said.
Henceforth, April 1 would be fixed as the admission date and admission to PGDM courses would commence only after that date. A high-level committee has also been appointed to formulate model curriculum for the programmes at that level.
“Institutions are welcome to give their inputs for curriculum development and that might be incorporated in the model framework,” he said.
There are 3,858 management institutes, out of which approximately 2,000 are offering PGDM courses. The Centre has also decided to set up institutes for professional and/or technical education in all the 241 districts across the country, where there are no AICTE-approved centres.
Chikkodi and Kodagu in Karnataka have been selected for setting up such institutes on the basis of public-private partnership or Build-Operate-Transfer.
The government would provide land and industrial houses could join in partnership to set up institutes imparting professional and or technical education.
In its bid to streamline the grievance-redressal system, the AICTE has also introduced video conferencing with all the regional offices.
“There are a number of issues that are handled by our regional offices and we have introduced this system only to expedite the solution of those issues. It would help us to bridge the time gap of sorting out any problem including grievances of students, institutions and faculty,” an official said.
All the offices of the AICTE have also been brought under a surveillance system to strengthen the security measures.